Netflix is buying up Warner Bros. for $72b
Back in October 2025, Paramount put an offer to Warner Bros to buy them up, after David Ellison bought up Paramount back in August 2025. This first offer was rejected, but then two additional offers were put forth and both were rejected, which led Warner Bros. to look at selling and in a bidding process, Netflix came out on top.
The deal is worth $72b USD or around $108b AUD and is the second largest acquisition of a company after Disney bought up 20th Century Fox, at least when adjusted for inflation. The sticker price on that deal was $71b USD, so just at the number level, this is worth more. However, just like the Disney deal for Fox, this won’t include all the Warner Bros groups, as some of them are being spun off to their own company.
So what is Netflix getting for their money, at a high level this is what they are picking up:
Studios - including Warner Bros Studios, WB Animation and DC Studios
Games - NetherRealm Studios, Rocksteady Studios, TT Games and the various WB branded studios such as Montreal and New York.
IP - Batman, Superman, Friends, Big Bang Theory, Hanna Barbera’s characters, Cartoon Network’s characters and more. They also get production rights to Game of Thrones media and Harry Potter media, the original book rights are with the authors still.
Now there are a lot of regulations that must be met for the deal to go through, which is expected to take around 18 months to complete. They can’t also officially start the process until the split of CNN, TNT and other brands not in the deal are spun off into their own group.
Our thoughts on the matter are that the deal is not likely to get approval, simply due to the streaming grounds. Netflix and HBO Max are two very different brands and they are both competing for the same space. When Disney bought Fox, there was no streaming aspects for the Fox brand, in fact it was almost a clear shot, but this time around there is a lot more going on.
Now David Zaslav needs to be fired, he is an absolute waste of space, and leading this deal is his final screw you to Warner Bros. He took control of the company in 2021 when the company was spun out of the AT&T business and since then has cancelled movies that were already complete, deleted shows from streaming services, closed down a number of games studios, laid off thousands and thousands of people, and doing it while he earns some $45m USD a year.
In a letter sent to all WB employees Zaslav said this:
I know this announcement creates many questions about what’s next. For some, it brings clarity about direction. For others, it raises questions about what this means for their teams and their work. All of those reactions are understandable.
The problem I have with him is that he has been making decisions like this for years now, with no accountability and now he thinks he can sooth worries with a meeting. Now Netflix has promised that they will keep Warner Bros movies in cinemas, which goes against their anti-cinema ethos and is another roadblock to approval. Since the deal was announced, a Netflix executive has already said that there is a chance movies will only be in cinemas for a shorter time, before they end up on Netflix.
Right now, the deal has a lot of global regulations to meet and pass and while I don’t believe it will, stranger things have happened.
