{"id":2188005,"date":"2025-12-05T12:22:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T12:22:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2188005"},"modified":"2025-12-05T12:22:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T12:22:02","slug":"netflix-to-acquire-warner-bros-in-82-7-billion-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/netflix-to-acquire-warner-bros-in-82-7-billion-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in $82.7 Billion Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tIt\u2019s official: Netflix<\/a>, run by chairman Reed Hastings and co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, has agreed to buy Warner Bros.<\/a> in a deal valued at $82.7 billion. The companies issued a press release early Friday. Netflix has been described by Wall Street analysts as the winner of the \u201cstreaming wars.\u201d And now, it is at the Hollywood gates and ready for its latest conquest, even if it is expected to face heavy regulatory scrutiny. The news came after reports that it was in exclusive talks<\/a> with Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> to acquire its streaming and, ironically, studios business.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot only is it understood to have made the highest offer in terms of financial valuation. A Netflix deal would also allow WBD to go through with the planned separation<\/a> of its networks business and allow WBD CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels<\/a> to become CEO of that Global Networks business.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy is Netflix buying Warner Bros. and HBO? \u201cAbove all, the flow of new\u00a0content which drives the majority of Netflix engagement,\u201d Wolfe Research analyst Peter Supino said in a recent report. \u201cContent released in the last year makes up only about 5 percent of the titles on Netflix but drives over 20 percent of Netflix viewing, reflecting that Netflix engagement increases\/ decreases when content spend goes up\/down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich, in a recent report, described the auction of WBD this way: \u201cThe global media industry stands at the precipice of historic transformation, with WBD positioned at the epicenter.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd she argued that Netflix sealing a deal for WBD\u2019s studios and streaming operations would allow it to kill three birds with one stone. \u201cThe bidding war for WBD\u2019s streaming and studio assets reflects the economic reality of the 2025 media environment that mid-sized legacy media studios\/companies can no longer compete with the unit economics of Netflix or the ecosystem of large tech players, such as Amazon,\u201d she explained. \u201cUltimately, an acquisition may be existential for both Paramount Skydance and [Comcast<\/a>\u2018s] NBCUniversal, and therefore, aside from potential direct financial benefits, an acquisition by Netflix could potentially be killing three birds with one stone \u2013 as WBD would be housed within Netflix and Paramount Skydance and NBCU\/Peacock would, in our view, have difficulty remaining competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMorgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne has previously also highlighted the intellectual property that Netflix would get its hands on in a WBD deal. \u201cThere are only a handful of 100-plus-year-old Hollywood studios, with Warner Bros. tracing back to 1923,\u201d he wrote in a recent report. \u201cIn addition to a deep library of titles, Warner Bros. is of fairly unmatched scale among studios with adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of over $2.5 billion and growing. Perhaps most interesting to\u00a0Netflix, it owns or has exclusive rights to several iconic franchises that could be exploited for decades to come \u2013 including\u00a0DC Comics,\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>, and\u00a0Lord of the Rings<\/em>. Finally, it brings talent relationships, production assets, and global distribution scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe same is true for HBO and HBO Max. \u201cHBO brings its own set of IP, built over the past few decades, with HBO original series,\u201d Swinburne highlighted. \u201cIt also has a brand still largely synonymous with prestige TV. HBO has also largely made the pivot from linear distribution to streaming, implying\u00a0Netflix\u00a0would have minimal exposure to legacy TV headwinds. We estimate only 10-15 percent of its roughly 130 million global subscribers are still signed up through wholesale [pay TV] packages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe biggest hurdle for a Netflix-WBD combination is widely seen as being regulatory concerns. But that is more of a headache for the streamer rather than WBD. Even before news of the exclusive talks, Bernstein analyst Laurent Yoon argued that going with Netflix\u2019s takeover bid was a win-win for the seller, given reports that the streamer has offered a $5 billion break-up fee in case the deal can not be completed. \u201cWBD faces little downside \u2013 at least one worth taking,\u201d he wrote. \u201cEither they get acquired by Netflix \u2013 85 percent cash! \u2013 or they walk away with free capital to fund the next phase of growth. And more than $5 billion is enough to produce more than 20 Superman<\/em>-scale blockbuster films. That\u2019s not a bad outcome either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.hollywoodreporter.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s official: Netflix, run by chairman Reed Hastings and co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, has agreed to buy Warner Bros. in a deal valued at $82.7 billion. The companies issued a press release early Friday. Netflix has been described by Wall Street analysts as the winner of the \u201cstreaming wars.\u201d And now, it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2188006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[395809,24379,23191,309286,306876,328922],"class_list":["post-2188005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-comcast","tag-international","tag-netflix","tag-paramount-global","tag-warner-bros","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Netflix-to-Acquire-Warner-Bros-in-827-Billion-Deal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188007,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188005\/revisions\/2188007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}