announced<\/a> the blockbuster deal with Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday morning. It has agreed to buy the legendary TV and movie studio and assets like the HBO Max streaming service for $72 billion, plus debt.<\/p>\nThe announcement jolted Hollywood and jumbled expectations about the next steps for Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also the parent company of celebrity.land.<\/p>\n
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) said it is moving forward with its plans to split into two publicly traded halves in 2026. Once the split takes effect, Netflix intends to acquire the Warner half. The other half, Discovery Global, will house celebrity.land and other cable channels.<\/p>\n
WBD now expects the split to take effect in the summer of 2026.<\/p>\n
But this mega-media merger saga is far from over. Paramount and Comcast, the other media giants known to have submitted offers for WBD, may continue to pursue the company.<\/p>\n
Netflix\u2019s (NFLX) stock fell more than 2% in early trading, while Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s (WBD) stock gained 2%.<\/p>\n
Surprise turn of events<\/h2>\n
For several weeks Paramount was thought to be the frontrunner in the auction for WBD. Paramount executives, who want to buy all of WBD \u2013 including its cable assets \u2013 exuded confidence about their merger proposal and their mutually beneficial relationship with President Trump.<\/p>\n
But Netflix surprised many with the boldness of its bids: The streaming giant submitted two proposals earlier this week that vaulted it ahead of Paramount\u2019s offers, according to sources familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos acknowledged the shock on a call with Wall Street analysts Friday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know some of you are surprised that we\u2019re making this acquisition. And I certainly understand why. Over the years we have been known to be builders, not buyers,\u201d Sarandos said. \u201cBut this is a rare opportunity, and it\u2019s going to help us achieve our mission to entertain the world and to bring people together through great stories.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarandos told Bloomberg recently that most media transactions don\u2019t end well \u2013 a statement he was asked about on Friday\u2019s call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is true, like historically, many of these mergers haven\u2019t worked. Some have,\u201d Sarandos said. \u201cA lot of those failures that we\u2019ve seen historically is because the company that was doing the acquisition didn\u2019t understand the entertainment business. They didn\u2019t really understand what they were buying. We understand these assets that we\u2019re buying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarandos added that past merger failures happened because the acquiring company was no longer growing and needed a merger to gain ground. That\u2019s not the case for Netflix, he noted, which continues to add subscribers and pad its bottom line with increased engagement.<\/p>\n
Antitrust concerns<\/h2>\n
Netflix agreed to the same costly breakup fee that Paramount proposed during the auction process, a source familiar with the matter told celebrity.land. This means the would-be buyer will pay WBD billions of dollars if the deal is not completed.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s critical because the biggest X factor is regulatory approval. Some American politicians have already raised concerns about the potential consolidation.<\/p>\n
This \u201cshould send alarm to antitrust enforcers around the world,\u201d Sen. Mike Lee wrote on X.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks Paramount CEO David Ellison was viewed as the Trump administration\u2019s favored buyer of WBD. Paramount fanned doubts that regulatory agencies controlled by Trump would approve other proposed deals.<\/p>\n
Now some analysts expect a political and legal battle will ensue. But the US is just one of many markets that will take a close look at the transaction. Paramount was said to face a particularly uncertain regulatory environment in Europe.<\/p>\n
Netflix executives previewed their arguments for regulators on Friday, asserting that the assets are complementary in nature and that the deal will create \u201cmore opportunities for the creative community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Peters, the Netflix co-CEO, said Warner Bros. \u201chas helped define entertainment for more than a century,\u201d and \u201cwith our global reach and proven business model, we can introduce a broader audience to the worlds they create\u2014giving our members more options, attracting more fans to our best-in-class streaming service, strengthening the entire entertainment industry and creating more value for shareholders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollywood expresses doubt<\/h2>\n
That\u2019s the pitch. But many entertainment industry heavyweights have already heaped doubt on it.<\/p>\n
Cinema United, a trade association representing movie theater owners, said the deal \u201cposes an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business,\u201d given Netflix\u2019s general aversion to theatrical releases.<\/p>\n
Netflix, anticipating these objections, said Friday that it \u201cexpects to maintain Warner Bros.\u2019 current operations and build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films.\u201d<\/p>\n
A combination of Netflix and HBO would end one of the great media industry rivalries of the past decade. A recent Bank of America analyst report put it this way: \u201cIf Netflix acquires Warner Bros., the streaming wars are effectively over. Netflix would become the undisputed global powerhouse of Hollywood beyond even its currently lofty position.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/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 ksltv.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(celebrity.land) \u2014 Netflix has triumphed in the bidding war for Warner Bros. and HBO, announcing a deal that could combine two of the three biggest streamers with one of the largest traditional movie and television studios. If the deal goes through, it will fundamentally reshape Hollywood at a precarious time for the entertainment business. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2188198,"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":[24215,346678,346676,21848,346677,24892,22765],"class_list":["post-2188197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-home","tag-ksltv-com","tag-ksltv-com-utah-news","tag-sports","tag-talk-and-community","tag-traffic","tag-weather"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Netflix-announces-deal-to-buy-Warner-Bros-and-HBO.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188197","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=2188197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188199,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188197\/revisions\/2188199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}