Skadden, Wachtell, Debevoise act on Netflix’s US$82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery

Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery have entered into a definitive agreement for Netflix to pick up Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc along with its film and television studios, HBO, and the streaming service HBO Max.

The cash and stock transaction is valued at $27.75 per WBD share, with a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion (equity value of $72.0 billion).

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom advised Netflix on this acquisition.

The transaction team consisted of M&A partners Kenton King (Palo Alto), Sonia Nijjar (Palo Alto), Lauren Kramer (New York) and associate Corey Janson (New York); antitrust/competition partners Steven Sunshine (Washington, D.C.) and Joseph Rancour (Washington, D.C.) and counsel Bradley Pierson (Washington, D.C.); intellectual property and technology partner Ken Kumayama (Palo Alto); capital markets partner Michelle Gasaway (Los Angeles and Houston); banking partner Leila Sayegh (Los Angeles); tax partner Nathan Giesselman (Palo Alto); executive compensation and benefits partner Page Griffin (Palo Alto and New York); and labor and employment law partner Ryne Posey (Los Angeles and Palo Alto).

Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz also advised Warner Bros Discovery on this transaction,

The transaction team consisted of corporate partners Andrew J. Nussbaum and Karessa L. Cain; associates Hannah Clark, Steven A. Jaffe, and Jacob D. Pearlman; tax partner Deborah L. Paul; and litigation partners William Savitt and Ryan A. McLeod.

Debevoise & Plimpton advised Warner Bros Discovery on this transaction.

The transaction team was led by M&A partners Jonathan Levitsky, Gordon Moodie, Katherine Durnan Taylor, and Erik Andrén; and included partners John Love, Jeffrey Rosen and William Regner; counsel Sarah Jacobson and Molly Stockley; associates Amanda Blazek, Robert Geren, Grace Huang, Richard Hughes, Rekha Korlipara, Victoria Li, Tomohiro Numahata, and Zoë Zissu; and law clerks Jason Bach, Tyler Lorenzen and Nicholas Paruta.

Finance partners Jeffrey Ross and Ramya Tiller; counsel Jonathon Yeung; associates Talia Lorch and Marta Poplawski; capital markets partners Matthew Kaplan and Benjamin Pedersen; associates Emily Espinel, Jasmine Fong, Alice Gu, Ramsha Khursheed, and Maayan Stein; tax partners Erin Cleary and Peter Schuur; counsel Ben Lee Friedman; associates Olivia Coral Daniels, Harshil Mehta, and Isabel Shipman; employee benefits and executive compensation partner Simone Hicks; of counsel Lawrence Cagney; counsel Wendy Widman; associates Gregory Kramer, Alexandra Schoellkopf, and Samuel Siegel; intellectual property partner Henry Lebowitz; associates Yinran Pan and Natalie Mauch; and law clerk Alice Zheng; provided further support.

Under the terms of the agreement, each WBD shareholder will receive $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in shares of Netflix common stock for each share of WBD common stock outstanding at the closing of the transaction. The transaction values Warner Bros. Discovery at $27.75 per share, implying a total equity value of approximately $72.0 billion and an enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion

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