<\/p>\n
Netflix highlighted strong performance from its content offers in the quarter – Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon<\/small><\/em><\/p>\n Streaming giant Netflix said Friday it will buy film and television studio Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly $83 billion, the entertainment industry\u2019s biggest consolidation deal this decade.<\/p>\n The acquisition, which will face regulatory scrutiny by the Trump administration and is opposed by top names in Hollywood, gives Netflix access to a vast film catalog as well as the prestigious streaming service HBO Max.<\/p>\n Over the decades, Warner Brothers has produced film classics including \u201cCasablanca\u201d and \u201cCitizen Kane\u201d, as well as more recent blockbuster shows including \u201cThe Sopranos\u201d, \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d movies.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling,\u201d said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, which has produced global hits including \u201cStranger Things\u201d, \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d and \u201cSquid Games\u201d.<\/p>\n The biggest previous such deal was Disney\u2019s $71 billion acquisition of Fox in 2019.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 including debt \u2014 of around $82.7 billion.<\/p>\n Amid echoes of criticism and puzzlement about the deal, Netflix\u2019s share price was down by more than 2.5 percent on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world,\u201d said David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, in the statement.<\/p>\n The deal is the biggest consolidation in entertainment in more than half a decade \u2013 Copyright AFP\/File Joseph Prezioso<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The transaction, which was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies, is to close within 12 to 18 months, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cNetflix\u00a0aims to dominate Hollywood,\u201d said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, a trading and investment firm.<\/p>\n The analyst warned of a number of potential issues surrounding the deal, including fears of a Netflix monopoly once it commands such \u201ca colossus in the TV and movie business\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2013 Antitrust issues expected \u2013<\/p>\n Netflix, whose stock weakened as speculation on the imminent tie-up heated up in New York trading Thursday, \u201chas never attempted a deal of this size before, which could lead to some concern about how the new mega company will be managed going forward\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n Brooks said she also expected political issues given that a deal of this size would need regulatory approval from anti-trust authorities in the US, and potentially elsewhere.<\/p>\n According to the celebrity.land, White House officials have recently expressed concern about Netflix\u2019s possible acquisition of WBD, which they believe could give the video platform a dominant position in the US content market.<\/p>\n The parent company of HBO, celebrity.land and the Warner Bros film studio officially put itself up for sale in October after receiving multiple unsolicited offers, setting aside a planned split into two separate entities \u2014 one focused on streaming and studios, the other on traditional cable networks.<\/p>\n Warner Bros Discovery was originally targeted by Paramount \u2014 recently acquired by the billionaire tech family of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world\u2019s richest men and a Trump ally.<\/p>\n Netflix had joined Paramount Skydance and Comcast, the owner of NBCUniversal, in a second round of an auction that was being negotiated throughout the US Thanksgiving holiday.<\/p>\n Netflix, the world\u2019s largest streaming service with over 280 million subscribers globally, has been working on a bridge loan totaling tens of billions of dollars to finance the acquisition, according to sources cited by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n Top Hollywood players have voiced their preference to see Warner Bros not end up in the hands of Netflix, citing concerns that the streaming company largely seeks to limit theatrical releases of its film productions.<\/p>\n \u201cTitanic\u201d director James Cameron, speaking before Friday\u2019s announcement, called any takeover of Warner Bros by Netflix \u201ca disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n Netflix says it intends to maintain Warner Bros.\u2019 activities, including theatrical film releases and to expand US content production.<\/p>\n The streaming battles and the decline of traditional entertainment are leading to major strategic reorganizations among the big Hollywood players.<\/p>\n In 2021, Amazon acquired the legendary Hollywood studio MGM for $8.45 billion, gaining a catalog of more than 4,000 films, including the James Bond and Rocky franchises.<\/p>\n burs-arp\/md<\/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 www.digitaljournal.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Netflix highlighted strong performance from its content offers in the quarter – Copyright AFP Patrick T. Fallon Streaming giant Netflix said Friday it will buy film and television studio Warner Bros. Discovery for nearly $83 billion, the entertainment industry\u2019s biggest consolidation deal this decade. The acquisition, which will face regulatory scrutiny by the Trump administration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2188680,"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":[386779,21741,307568,23191,25423,422392],"class_list":["post-2188679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-acquisition","tag-entertainment","tag-featured","tag-netflix","tag-us","tag-warnerbros"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Netflix-to-buy-Warner-Bros-Discovery-in-deal-of-the.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188679","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=2188679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2188681,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188679\/revisions\/2188681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}