In a stunning twist in the months-long war between Netflix and Paramount over which company would purchase Warner Bros., the streaming giant has bowed out.

After Warner Bros. released a statement on Thursday saying that the company’s board of directors viewed Paramount’s latest offer as a “superior proposal,” and that Netflix had four days to respond, the streamer backed out of the bidding war.

“Under the terms of the Netflix merger agreement, this notice triggers a four business day period during which Netflix has the right to propose revisions to the Netflix merger agreement so that the PSKY proposal would cease to constitute a ‘Company Superior Proposal,'” Warner Bros. stated in their press release.

Netflix Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters responded in a statement of their own.

“The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. 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,” Sarandos and Peters said.

The company heads added that they believe Netflix would have taken good care of the Warner Bros. IP (intellectual property) and “strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.”

“But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” they concluded.

Paramount’s most recent bid raised the per-share price to $31, and featured a ticking fee, which would have paid shareholders if the deal took too long to come to fruition. Additionally, the company offered a $7 billion breakup fee, which would be paid if the deal were to fall through due to regulatory issues, and a nearly $3 billion fee that Warner Bros. owes Netflix as a result of their prior deal not materializing.

Netflix’s last offer was valued at $82.7 billion, and was aimed at purchasing Warner Bros.’ film and streaming divisions (HBO Max), as well as DC Comics. Paramount, on the other hand, would be purchasing all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its linear and cable TV networks.

There has been much consternation in Hollywood, especially following the Disney-Fox acquisition, over the Warner Bros. bidding war, with many in the industry voicing concerns that further media consolidation would do irreparable damage to the movie and TV business, with lost jobs and fewer options for creatives.

Though neither company (Paramount or Netflix) were favored by those in the industry, Netflix was viewed with a particularly skeptical eye as some questioned the streaming giant’s commitment to the theatrical experience. Others view Paramount CEO David Ellison’s apparently close relationship with the Trump administration as a reason for pause.

Vice President JD Vance said on Thursday that during Tuesday evening’s State of the Union address, he had only one thought running through his head the entire time: “Don’t make a stupid face for two hours.”

Vance, who sat directly behind President Donald Trump with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) during Trump’s record-setting speech, knew that he was going to be on camera the whole time the president was speaking, and was absolutely set on not making a fool of himself.

WATCH:

Vance: I have one thought in my head the whole time which is don’t make a stupid face for two hours, which is hard for me. pic.twitter.com/zqkUWPZyXo

— Acyn (@Acyn) February 26, 2026

The vice president revealed his “inner monologue” while speaking in Wisconsin on Thursday, saying that when congressional Democrats began saying and doing things in an attempt to disrupt Trump’s speech, he was worried that he might struggle with keeping a straight face.

Vance began by explaining that as he watched the events of the evening unfold — and as Democrats in the chamber shouted things at the president and one was even escorted out — he thought to himself what President Trump eventually said out loud: “These people are crazy!”

In that context, he added, “I have the best seat in the house in many ways. I’m sitting right next to the Speaker of the House, I’m sitting right behind the President of the United States, and I’ve got one internal monologue going on, one thought in my head the whole time, which is, ‘Don’t make a stupid face for two hours,’ which is hard for me.”

“When you’re on TV for two hours, and the Democrats are doing crazy things — so I’ll give you a little lay of the land,” he continued. “So to the left, my left, is all of the Republicans, okay, because I’m sitting right behind the president. And to my right is some Republicans but mostly the Democrats. So I see the reaction of all the Congressional Democrats, and it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen … they’re just scowling. They cannot clap their hands for a six-year-old who survived an attack from an illegal alien. What is that? What kind of a person can’t stand up and cheer for an innocent young girl who’s doing well and showing the entire country strength and resilience?”