Netflix Wants a Brother

Netflix dropped a bit of an entertainment industry bomb yesterday as they announced their intent to acquire Warner Bros Discovery for about $72 Billion USD.

This situation is—put simply—hella wack from all angles.

The Package

If the deal goes through, Netflix will acquire the studio and streaming properties of Warner Bros, which includes HBO and properties such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and the DC Universe. Already, that is a wild acquisition for Netflix, but it's actually not as much as it could have been.

What Netflix isn't buying is the "Discovery" side of things. There was already a plan in place for Warner Bros Discovery to break up into two main components: the studio and streaming side, and the cable networks side (CNN, TNT, Discovery).

That entity still be split off into it's own thing, per the current deal. Netflix has explicitly stated they aren't including that part and expect it to spin off before the closure of this deal.

The Bidders

This all kinda seems like it came out of nowhere, yeah? Well, aside from Warner Bros. Discovery having a pretty rough debt situation, it kinda was out of nowhere. Sorta.

You may recall that Paramount is now controlled by the Ellison family (Oracle / Larry Ellison). You may recall that Paramount recently put Bari Weiss at the head of CBS, while Oracle is angling to own TikTok in the US, while aligning themselves closely with the state.

Well wouldn't you know it: Paramount made an unsolicited bid to purchase Warner Bros, kicking off this whole ordeal. Only their bid was different: they wanted all of it, including the cable networks.

But lo, what yonder other terrible company breaks? 'Tis the east, and Comcast is the—no, Comcast is just trash. Though, trash that was not about to let Paramount gobble up all that, so they came in with their own offer similar to Netflix, seeking to get the studios and streaming services.

And then, well, then Netflix came in and dropped their own bid, and now we're here.

So while it's obviously not good that Netflix is consolidating even more of the entertainment industry and this move is almost comically hostile towards the future of workers in the industry, the alternate timeline was that the Ellison family or Comcast would've been the buyer.

I cannot think of a worse Fuck, Marry, Kill.

So What Now?

As of now, the deal hasn't gone through, but it is processing. The contract is drawn up and the parties involved are in agreement. Now, they just need permission from The Lord regulatory agencies and to win out on any legal or PR challenges they may face, of which Paramount seems interested in causing.

Politicians from both major parties in the US have expressed criticism of the deal, though the White House has already signaled they are less-than-thrilled with it, not likely due to the merger, but due to the buyer not being the Ellison family.

It's likely this will be a bit of a drawn out process, and nothing is changing today, but take this as a reminder to maybe seek out and possibly patron some new independent media if you are so inclined.