Netflix said on Thursday that it will not match Paramount Skydance’s latest bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the way for a massive merger that could shake up the entertainment and media industry. 

Netflix agreed in December to buy part of Warner Bros. Discovery for $27.75 a share, or $82.7 billion. But Paramount Skydance had made a $30 a share all-cash offer to buy all of the company, and on Tuesday raised its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery to $31 a share (Paramount Skydance owns CBS News.)

Earlier on Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors notified Netflix that Paramount’s $31 per share offer constituted a “superior proposal” for the company.

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement Thursday. “However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

Paramount Skydance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Warner Bros. Discovery owns streaming and film studios, along with cable channels including CNN, Food Network, HBO, HGTV, TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies.

The merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery will require approval from federal antitrust enforcers. Paramount Skydance executives have said that combining the companies would benefit consumers and help boost the entertainment industry, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic. 

Some entertainment industry groups and lawmakers have raised concerns that uniting two major Hollywood studios could undermine competition. 

For its part, Paramount Skydance executives had argued that a union of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns streaming platform HBO Max, was likely to arouse antitrust objections.

In enhancing its offer this week, Paramount Skydance said it would pay a $7 billion termination fee if its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery collapsed over regulatory concerns. 

Gigi Hadid and Bradley Cooper are sticking together while the actor faces backlash on social media, following scandalous allegations about him.

The supermodel, 30, and the American Hustle star, 51, stepped out in coordinating fall-themed outfits on Wednesday, February 25, in New York City.

Hadid sported a pair of grey trousers and a chocolate-brown coat, with her hair in a messy bun, and Cooper paired black trousers with a beige shacket and black puffer jacket.

The couple were seen leaving the screening of Frankenstein, with a Q&A Event featuring Jacob Elordi at the DGA Theater.

Hadid and Cooper have been together since 2023, and have already hard-launched their relationship on Instagram.

Last December, they attended a Broadway performance of Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot, and posed for a picture together behind-the-scenes.

While the duo has kept their relationship lowkey, it has been in the spotlight in recent times as fans were speculating about the next step for the couple.

Social media sleuths also called out Cooper for his name being in the Epstein files. Neither Hadid or Cooper have addressed the allegation.