Paramount preparing improved Warner Bros. Discovery offer, Variety reports

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) is preparing to submit an improved offer above $30/share for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) by Monday’s 11:59p.m. ET deadline, aiming to outbid Netflix (NFLX), Variety’s Todd Spangler and Matt Donnelly report. Following this, Netflix has four days to either match Paramount’s bid or step aside, with co-CEO Ted Sarandos signaling a willingness to walk away rather than overpay. “The next move is up to somebody else. We have a signed deal with Warner Bros. Discovery,” Sarandos said in a Friday interview. “If someone wants to make a better deal, which the Warner Bros. Discovery board has said has not happened yet, then we’ll see what happens down the road. But let’s not get ahead of that process. And I certainly wouldn’t comment on the bidding strategy anyway. But the core of it is, you know, we’re super-disciplined buyers, as you probably know we have a reputation for such so that I’m willing to walk away and let someone else overpay for things. We have a rich history of that.”