In 2025, it was announced that Warner Bros. was going up for sale, with the behemoth eventually reaching a deal with Netflix. However, Paramount bulldozed its way in, and, following a hostile bid, came out winning.
Netflix had sealed the deal with Warner Bros. for a whopping $82.2 billion in enterprise value for Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming, following the upcoming Discovery separation. Paramount had offered $110 billion, and Netflix dropped out. However, now Paramount is continuing the feud with Netflix as it accuses the streamer of a campaign to “poison regulators and other stakeholders,” according to Variety.
Paramount Is Firing Back at Netflix
After Warner Bros. shareholders agreed with Paramount’s hostile bid, Netflix said it wouldn’t match the offer and walked away. However, the streaming platform didn’t do so empty-handed, as Paramount paid Netflix $2.8 billion as a termination fee.
Since then, Paramount embarked on a victory trip, enjoying the upcoming benefits of the merger, which is expected to happen sometime near the end of the year following the Warner Bros. and Discovery separation. However, Paramount Skydance’s top lawyer claims Netflix is worried about the potential competition with the merged product.
So, Paramount is now claiming the streaming company is going all-out to try to “poison regulators and other stakeholders” against the pending $111 billion deal.
Paramount’s chief legal officer, Makan Delrahim, alleges Netflix is lobbying hard against Paramount’s proposed Warner Bros. Discovery deal. In a June 5 letter to lawyers in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Delrahim wrote that, “Netflix’s panic-level response and scorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders against the Transaction shows just how seriously Netflix takes Paramount as a scaled competitor.”
Delrahim reportedly replied to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ white paper, which was submitted to the Justice Department in March, just shortly after the new deal was announced in late February. The union urged the agency to block the upcoming merger unless Paramount agrees to “substantial and enforceable safeguards against job cuts and supporting increased U.S. production.
The alleged “scorched-earth” campaign includes comparing the upcoming $110 billion merger to Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019, which didn’t have the best results for movies, films, and jobs, as well as competition in the industry. This has been one of the key arguments of actors and people opposing the merger, not just Netflix.
Delrahim explained in the letter, “We understand that as part of its broader proxy war against the Transaction, Netflix has tried to persuade the Teamsters and other stakeholders that Disney’s acquisition of Fox had a negative impact on content production and labor opportunities. Frankly, Netflix’s ‘sky is falling’ narrative departs significantly from the ground-truth reality of what actually happened.”
Paramount’s Warner Bros. Merger Just Got a Hiccup in the UK
Although Paramount is accusing Netflix of trying to derail the deal, the streamer has been quiet on this front, and the David Ellison-led company has received little support from the outside. Instead, Hollywood stars and filmmakers have signed petitions, and even Paramount’s subscribers sued the company over the merger. It also received a new hiccup in the UK, as it just launched a formal investigation into Paramount and Warner Bros.’ $110 billion merger.
The UK isn’t the only one, as the EU is also conducting an antitrust investigation, with the first part of the investigation’s deadline set to July 7. Competition scholars have predicted that a deeper investigation is likely.