{"id":434983,"date":"2025-12-09T06:23:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/434983\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T06:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T06:23:15","slug":"netflix-ceo-shrugs-off-paramount-bid-says-hes-super-confident-about-wbd-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/434983\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix CEO shrugs off Paramount bid, says he\u2019s \u2018super confident\u2019 about WBD deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

After announcing an almost-$83 billion deal to buy most of Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> on Friday, Netflix\u2019s top brass projected calm on Monday as Paramount Skydance lobbed a hostile bid<\/a> to purchase all of WBD,\u00a0 and investors seemed to recoil at the sheer size of Netflix\u2019s own offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s move was entirely expected,\u201d Co-CEO Ted Sarandos told investors at a UBS conference, brushing off Paramount\u2019s bid just hours earlier. \u201cWe have a deal done, and we are incredibly happy with the deal. We think it\u2019s great for our shareholders. It\u2019s great for consumers. We think it\u2019s a great way to create and protect jobs in the entertainment industry.\u201d From Netflix\u2019s perspective, Sarandos added, \u201cWe have a deal done, and we\u2019re incredibly happy with the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarandos\u2019s co-CEO, Greg Peters, then walked the audience through Netflix\u2019s three-phase plan to wring value from Warner Bros. and HBO<\/a>. If the deal goes through, he said, Netflix would turbocharge licensing opportunities, \u201cdouble down\u201d on the HBO brand, and unlock upsides from Warner Bros\u2019 vast library of IP, which many analysts consider a \u201ccrown jewel\u201d in the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The executives\u2019 comments came after investors sent Netflix stock tumbling down 6% in the two trading sessions since its Warner deal was announced, with some analysts blasting<\/a> the $82.7 billion deal as \u201cexorbitant\u201d and \u201cvery risky.\u201d Netflix stock is down more than 20% over the last six months.<\/p>\n

Peters acknowledged that Netflix is known as a builder, not a buyer\u2014generally developing its own intellectual property, rather than purchasing other companies\u2019: \u201cWe haven\u2019t done this before,\u201d he said. But the company that started out lending DVDs by mail has pivoted several times to become the more than $400-billion behemoth now challenging Hollywood\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s worth noting that Netflix began streaming other companies\u2019 content before it began producing its own programming. Its licensing operations are still vaunted in the industry, with the famous example of the legal drama Suits becoming a smash hit several years after it stopped airing on cable TV. As Peter put it: \u201cEssentially, we are constantly in the business of evaluating various different licensing opportunities for titles and then trying to figure out, how do we maximize the value of that asset on our platform?\u201d The Warner deal will just make official what Netflix already does, day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netflix\u2019s deal announcement on Friday rattled many in Hollywood, including creators and their unions, and movie theater owners, whose trade organization called it an \u201cunprecedented threat\u201d to their business<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarandos, the executive behind the model that made \u201cNetflix and chill\u201d a byword for the millennial dating practice of and binging shows and movies at home, has largely refused to release movies in theaters, except to qualify for awards. At an event earlier this year<\/a>, Sarandos dismissed going to the movies as \u201can outmoded idea for most people\u201d and said Netflix was \u201csaving Hollywood\u201d with its stream-at-home model.<\/p>\n

But on Monday he extended an olive branch to theater owners, saying of theatrical releases \u201cWe didn\u2019t buy this company to destroy that value.\u201d \u201cWhat we are going to do with this is we\u2019re deeply committed to releasing those movies exactly the way they\u2019ve released those movies today,\u201d he said at the UBS conference. \u201cWhen this deal closes, we are in that business, and we\u2019re going to do it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarandos also discussed his conversations with President Donald Trump\u2014which Bloomberg reported<\/a> over the weekend began in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

President Trump \u201ccares deeply about American industry, and he loves the entertainment industry,\u201d Sarandos said. Jobs were the president\u2019s main concern, according to Sarandos, who reeled off statistics showing that Netflix original productions employed 140,000 people between 2020 and 2024, contributing $125 billion to the U.S. economy. \u201cWe are producing in all 50 states,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve used 500 independent production companies to make content for us, about roughly 1,000 original projects.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sarandos and Peters pointed out that Paramount\u2019s offer might entail more job cuts, because Paramount and Warner have more overlap in their operations than Netflix and Warner. \u201cIn the offer that Paramount was talking about today, they also were talking about $6 billion of synergies,\u201d said Sarandos. <\/strong>\u201cWhere do you think synergies come from? Cutting jobs. Yeah, so we\u2019re not cutting jobs, we\u2019re making jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarandos also discussed HBO, the premium cable channel turned streamer\u2014Netflix\u2019s former rival and inspiration. Sarandos has famously said<\/a> of Netflix that \u201cthe goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us,\u201d comments he later modified<\/a> to add he wants \u201cCBS and BBC\u201d too. Now that his company is set to become HBO\u2019s parent, he said it can realize its true destiny as the leading light of prestige TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been doing gymnastics to make themselves into a general entertainment brand,\u201d Sarandos said of HBO in the HBO Max era overseen by WBD CEO David Zaslav<\/a>. \u201cUnder this transaction, they don\u2019t have to do that anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Netflix co-CEOs also hammered a message clearly aimed at regulators who might take anti-trust action to halt the deal: The combined company would hardly dominate TV. The Netflix deal spins off CNN, TNT, Discovery, HGTV, the Food Network and the company\u2019s other cable channels, while the Paramount offer keeps the cable assets attached. Using Nielsen viewership data that appeared to include linear TV as well as streaming, Peters said Netflix commands just 8% of U.S. TV hours; adding HBO would raise that to 9%.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d still be behind YouTube<\/a>,\u201d he noted. \u201cAnd we\u2019d still be behind a combined Paramount\u2013WBD at 14%.\u201d<\/p>\n

BofA Research\u2019s Media & Entertainment team used a different metric\u2014total TV streaming\u2014from Nielsen data to calculate that Warner and Netflix combined would be about 21% of the market, whereas Paramount and Warner would be 8%. Both would still come in behind YouTube at 28%, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Trump weighed in on Sunday about his relationship with Sarandos and the pending antitrust question. Saying the Netflix co-CEO is a \u201cfantastic person,\u201d Trump added that the Warner-Netflix market share \u201ccould be a problem.\u201d At any rate, Trump added, uncharacteristically for a sitting president, he would be involved in what happens next.<\/p>\n

Sarandos finished the UBS panel by reiterating to everyone listening and watching, many of whom have been long-term holders of Netflix stock, that he was \u201cexcited\u201d about the deal. (The question of whether Netflix would sweeten its bid for WBD wasn\u2019t raised.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think this deal with Warner Brothers is good for shareholders,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think it\u2019s good for consumers. We think it\u2019s good for creators. We think it\u2019s great for the entertainment industry as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Editor\u2019s note: one of the authors worked at Netflix from June 2024 through July 2025. The report was also updated to clarify that Paramount and Warner together would constitute 8% of TV time.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After announcing an almost-$83 billion deal to buy most of Warner Bros. Discovery on Friday, Netflix\u2019s top brass…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":434984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[8317,69,171,118708,4659,16275,6584,173,67,132,68,27281],"class_list":{"0":"post-434983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cable","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-monopoly","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-paramount-global","14":"tag-streaming","15":"tag-tv","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115688178100799289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}