"It's official: Big Red is buying the back-lot empire home to Batman, Harry Potter, and Tony Soprano. On the heels of weeks of frenzied bidding among rival studio suitors, Netflix announced early on Friday it has bought Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets for $82.7 billion: a blockbuster deal with the potential to reshape Hollywood and the wider media universe, if it can pass significant regulatory hurdles."
"Arriving relatively late to the bidding war in late October, Netflix ultimately bested competing offers from Comcast (the parent company of Universal Pictures that was similarly angling to acquire Warner's studio and streaming business) and Paramount (headed by upstart mogul David Ellison with the multibillion-dollar backing of his Oracle CEO father, Larry Ellison, and aiming to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery including the cable channels)."
Netflix acquired Warner Bros. Discovery's studio and streaming assets for $82.7 billion in a cash-and-stock transaction that could close by next fall pending government approval. Warner Bros. Discovery will spin off its cable unit, which includes CNN, HGTV, Food Network, and Discovery, into a separate company before the deal closes. Netflix entered the bidding late but outpaced Comcast and Paramount to secure the asset purchase, valuing Warner at about $72 billion versus its prior $60 billion market capitalization. The acquisition marks Netflix's largest purchase and pairs a theatrical studio foundation with a dominant streaming platform.
Read at Vulture
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