Netflix has secured new bank financing totaling $25 billion to replace a portion of the cash commitment under its previously disclosed $59 billion bridge loan to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios and streaming business.
The refinancing agreements laid out in an SEC filing that hit Monday include a $5 billion senior unsecured revolving credit facility as well as two senior unsecured delayed-draw term-loan facilities totaling $10 billion each. The news comes as Paramount this morning amended its hostile tender offer for all of Warner Bros. Discovery to address concerns raised by WBD’s board, which had rejected Par’s offer in favor of a deal with Netflix.
It’s not uncommon for companies in M&A deals to bolster initial bridge financing as Netflix is doing with a more permanent and cost-effective funding structure.
WBD earlier this month agreed to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix for an equity value of $72 billion, or $27.75 a share, in cash and stock (an enterprise value of $82.7 billion). The deal announced Dec. 4 is expected to close after the previously announced separation of WBD’s global networks business, Discovery Global, into a new publicly traded company in Q3 of 2026.
Paramount led by David Ellison subsequently took its $30 a share all-cash offer directly to WBD stockholders. In a concession today, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison offered a personal guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for the offer. Previously, the equity portion had been backstopped by the Ellison Family Trust, not by Ellison personally. Paramount also agreed to publish records confirming that the Ellison family trust owns approximately 1.16 billion shares of Oracle common stock and that all material liabilities of the Ellison family trust are publicly disclosed. It raised its breakup fee from $5 billion to $5.8 billion, matching Netflix, and said it had addressed WBD’s need for more financial flexibility during interim operations.
WBD stockholders now have until Jan. 20 to tender their shares directly to Paramount.