Category: Stock Market

Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Netflix, met with President Donald Trump at the White House in mid-November. The two discussed various topics for over an hour, including Warner Bros.’s auction of Discovery.  Warner & Co. — individuals who requested anonymity — shared details of the private conversation and mentioned that Trump believed Warner should sell to the highest bidder.

Sarandos argued for his company’s offer and agreed on certain points. He claimed that Netflix, the industry leader in streaming TV, is not a monopoly and that it had lost subscribers a few years earlier. Sarandos stated that Netflix doesn’t own cable channels or broadcast networks, and that its competitors aren’t just other streaming services.

He said Netflix is now the fifth or sixth largest TV distributor. If Warner Bros. were to be acquired, it would be comparable in size to YouTube in the US. With this impression, Sarandos left the meeting. Netflix agreed to pay Warner Bros. $82.7 billion, including debt, on Friday in one of the biggest media deals ever. If it succeeds, Netflix, a Silicon Valley-based streaming service that former Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes once called the Albanian army, will acquire both HBO, its former inspiration, and one of Hollywood’s oldest and most legendary studios.

The story is far from over. Warner Bros. was put up for auction by Paramount and might make a hostile bid. Its executives were in Washington lobbying against Netflix, which is also facing opposition from influential Hollywood guilds.

Warner Bros. must continue to separate its struggling cable TV networks. Additionally, there is no guarantee that Trump’s Justice Department won’t try to block the deal despite the visit to the White House. “Well, we’ll see what happens after that goes through a process. Trump said, “It’s Netflix and a great company, and they’ve done a phenomenal job.”