Known for breaking major streaming stories, he’s covered everything from Netflix policy shifts to Peacock’s ad-tier changes. A sci-fi fan and Toshiba Fire TV user, he brings sharp analysis and a love for the genre to his reporting.
After weeks of back-and-forth communications, press releases, and overtures to lawmakers, Netflix has to head back to the sidelines. The streaming service is still recovering its balance after seeing Warner Bros. Discovery slip through its fingers, following that company’s decision to pivot to a new merger offer from Paramount Skydance. Netflix bowed out of the race instead of submitting a new offer for WBD, and now its executive team has begun making the rounds to discuss why it decided to call it quits and what comes next.
Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos held a town hall meeting for employees on Friday to offer more of an explanation as to why it halted its efforts to purchase WBD. Deadline reports that the two executives explained that they didn’t feel the need to extend the sale process unnecessarily once Paramount came back with its newest offer.
Repeating that WBD would be a nice asset to have, but was not a must-have at any price, the duo revealed they were indeed disappointed not to get the company. However, they reiterated their stance that once Paramount passed a certain financial threshold with its new offer, they had reached the point of no return and would not make a poor monetary decision in the name of being stubborn.
Sarandos has also spoken with Bloomberg about the process, offering more details about President Trump’s involvement in the deal, and what comes next. After meeting with the president shortly before pulling out of the deal, Sarandos told Bloomberg that he never saw Trump’s opinion as a major stumbling block to closing the transaction.
“From the beginning of this, I knew there was a very sexy idea that he was going to make the call,” Sarandos said of Trump. “It was never the case. It was very clear from our first discussion that he never intended that to be the case. Once it was clear that we weren’t in the CNN business, it was a lot less interesting. He didn’t care that much more about our deal.”
Despite not closing the deal, the pursuit of WBD gave Netflix a chance to build stronger relationships with movie theater executives. Netflix gave multiple assurances that it was planning to continue fully distributing Warner Bros. films in theaters when it was lining up to buy the company, and as Sarandos told Bloomberg, that dialogue could lead to more partnerships with theaters in the future.
“One thing that’s been great about [the WBD pursuit] is getting to know and have open dialogue with the theater owners. I really didn’t have much reason to before,” Sarandos explained. “I think we’re going to find a bunch of cool things to do together going forward. I could see us doing things that we haven’t done before.”
Netflix recently announced that it would put the first two episodes of “One Piece” Season 2 into cinemas in the coming weeks, giving Sarandos’ words even more credibility. Netflix isn’t looking back with regret on its failed attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, and while Sarandos says it’s probably out on M&A opportunities for the foreseeable future, the company still has its status as the world’s biggest and most successful streaming service to fall back on.
