(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
Netflix chief Ted Sarandos quietly met with President Donald Trump at the White House as the streaming giant maneuvered to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a blockbuster $82.7 billion deal, according to sources.
During the mid-November meeting, which lasted more than an hour, Trump insisted Warner Bros. should “sell to the highest bidder,” a sentiment Sarandos was more than happy to lean on, people familiar with the interaction told Bloomberg.
Sarandos also reportedly told Trump that Netflix lacks the traditional muscle of broadcast or cable networks, insisting its rivals stretch far beyond streaming alone. By his calculation, Netflix sits only “fifth-or sixth-biggest” among TV distributors and absorbing Warner Bros., he argued, would simply lift it to roughly the scale of YouTube in the US.
Sarandos walked out of the West Wing believing Netflix would not meet immediate resistance, despite Paramount Skydance’s insistence that it held the inside track, according to Bloomberg. In Sarandos’ view, Paramount Skydance bosses Larry and David Ellison had misread their political pull and would likely bid too cautiously, leaving Netflix room to seize the advantage.
That Oval Office conversation now looks decisive. Netflix ultimately eclipsed Paramount Skydance and Comcast on Friday, winning control of one of Hollywood’s oldest studios and its other property, HBO.
Paramount’s insiders had boasted of their “good relationship with the administration,” and pushed hard to cast Netflix as a monopoly threat.
Speaking at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, Trump publicly hailed Netflix as “a great company” and Sarandos as “a fantastic man.”
When pressed on pending regulatory approval, the president said he would be “involved” and conceded that the takeover could be “a problem,” adding, “They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Bros, you know, that share goes up a lot, so, I don’t know. I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share.”
Behind the scenes, the Ellisons, who control Paramount, lobbied fiercely and claimed in a letter from lawyers last week that the Warner sale was “tilted and unfair.” But Netflix’s cash bid, including a record breakup fee, proved too muscular for Warner’s board to ignore.
The deal marks the latest chapter in Silicon Valley’s slow takeover of Hollywood, turning Netflix from an insurgent streaming upstart into Hollywood’s dominant studio owner. The platform now reaches more than 300 million subscribers and stands to own Warner’s library, which could further cement its global streaming dominance.
The deal is not quite sealed, however, and Warner must still spin off its cable channels — while Trump’s Justice Department could still intervene.
