As the clock ticked on a sale of the Warner Bros. empire, Netflix, Comcast and Paramount made a full-court press to snap up the David Zaslav-run studio conglomerate and crown jewel assets like HBO. Behind the scenes, the players made the case to the Warner Bros. Discovery board about why they should go with their multibillion-dollar bid — and the jockeying intensified over the past several days.

Netflix emerged with a deal (codenamed “Project Noble”), unveiling a $82.7 billion acquisition offer early on Dec. 5 that includes a whopping $5.8 billion breakup fee, with Warners shareholders receiving $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in shares of Netflix common stock for each share of WBD common stock. If that deal does go through, it will close in about 12 to 18 months, the companies say.

As the

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