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Hi, this is Cara Swisser from Scott
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Galloway HQ. Netflix has emerged as the
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winner in the war of the media titans.
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The company just announced plans to
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acquire Warner Brothers Discovery Studio
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and streaming businesses only in a deal
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valued at 82.7
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billion dollars that includes debt. The
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move follows a bidding war among
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Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount, and
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things have gotten contentious. Uh
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Paramount wrote a letter to Warner
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Brothers this week calling the process
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tainted. Obviously, it was a clear
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signal that David Ellison, the son of
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Larry Ellison, whose money uh he has
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been spending, uh was not going to get
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the deal. Uh but Netflix appears
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confident. It's offering a $5.5 billion
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breakup fee just like Paramount did if
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regulators don't approve the deal. So,
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uh for those paying mind, as we
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discussed on Pivot recently, it there's
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been a definite [ __ ] that guy feel
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related to the threat of Trump blocking
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anyone but his cronies. like the
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Ellison's from owning all the juicy
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bits. The the deal was existential to
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both Comcast and Netflix. One of them I
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felt was going to get it and they were
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not going to back down in the face of
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Paramount's really clottish Nepo Baby
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and Big Daddy shaking a Trump stick at
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them. And it's a real opportunity cuz
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Netflix, which usually would be the
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villain in this story, um has shifted
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the villain over to Paramount.
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Paramount, many people feel, is going to
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go hostile uh and take the matter to
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shareholders presenting their deal. um
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that letter was sort of the first uh
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parry in that fight. I think it's a
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mistake for them because I don't think
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they have goodwill of Hollywood and
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oddly enough Netflix and Ted Sarando's
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its very crafty CEO does. Um I think
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Netflix is a very gutsy company and so
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they obviously have calculated their
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fight is worth having away from all this
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all this drama is that this is a major
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turning event for Hollywood with
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Netflix. It'll change the way movies are
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released. Ted Sarandos is not a fan of
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long windows uh into theaters. So he
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will face opposition from theater
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owners. He will face opposition from
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writers. All these companies will as the
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consolidation of Hollywood goes on. But
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it's really a consolidating time.
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Paramount uh could go hostile. It might.
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It certainly has enough money. It just
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whether Larry Ellison wants to do it. I
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think David Ellison has really
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misstepped here pretty badly. So it's up
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to his dad to decide uh because he has
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all the money. Obviously, there's going
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to be a legal battle with the Justice
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Department. So, they've got to deal with
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that. You're seeing a real push back
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from companies who decided to take on
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the Trump uh administration. Most
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companies have been really acquiescent.
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And I think they feel a shift has
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happened that Trump's power is waning.
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This is going to get uh worse before it
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gets better. And you will see a real
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reflection from Hollywood of what has
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happened, which is tech has, no matter
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how you slice it, taken over. the other
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companies to watch. You might see a
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Disney Comcast or Apple Disney and
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everything else. So, uh, buckle up your
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seat belts, uh, as they say in the
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movies. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
