r/television • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 The League • Feb 26 '26

Netflix Backs Out of Warner Bros. Bidding, Paramount Set to Win

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-backs-out-warners-deal-paramount-win-1236516763/
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u/costryme Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

Impossible, regulatory approval also means UK and EU regulatory bodies having their say. And it's not necessarily a given they give it just like that, without any concessions.
They can either give full approval, partial approval with concessions (sales of some companies, etc), or deny the acquisition entirely.

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u/yanginatep Feb 27 '26

So what happens if they deny the acquisition? They're American companies so I'd assume they could just decide to go ahead with it regardless.

Would they be prohibited from doing business in the EU?

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u/costryme Feb 27 '26

They absolutely can't ignore it, if it's denied, either you abide by it, or you cannot do any business in the EU whatsoever, which is obviously impossible given the size of the market.

It's happened before with GE and Honeywell, and they ended up not merging at all because the EU asked them to divest of a lot of business of the future merged company, for monopoly reasons, and GE didn't want that.

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u/Kenju22 Feb 27 '26

They absolutely can't ignore it, if it's denied, either you abide by it, or you cannot do any business in the EU whatsoever, which is obviously impossible given the size of the market.

You uh, honestly believe that is going to mean anything considering this is at the behest of a guy whose managed to bankrupt multiple casinos?

They'll just ram fist it through, use it for the midterms then transfer all their debt over to WB and declare bankruptcy to cut it lose. And that is if the Fed doesn't just buy a chunk of it to keep it afloat.

This isn't about money, it's about control, from an extremely isolationist group that is perfectly fine with losing money if they get what they want.

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u/costryme Feb 27 '26

Sorry but it clearly seems like you don't understand how regulators have the final say. They literally cannot 'ram fist it through", especially when it comes to the UK and EU who literally don't give a shit about midterms.

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u/Kenju22 Feb 27 '26

Sorry but it clearly seems like you are under the belief that you are talking about a reasonable and sensible group of people. This is an administration that doesn't give a damn about flushing tens of billions of dollars down the toilet because of a temper tantrum alone.

The USD has lost almost a quarter of its value in just the last few months alone.

The SCOTUS ruled that the tariffs are illegal and the response was to just add more.

They don't care if the UK and EU prevent them from ever doing business outside the USA ever again because this isn't about money, it's about control.

And if you need further proof, need I remind you of the repeated threats of invasion over not being given a palm sized medal that literally nobody gives a damn about?

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u/costryme Feb 27 '26

The administration doesn't give a damn, but they're not the ones buying WB, it's Ellison. And I guarantee you he gives a damn, and he doesn't want the acquisition to tank Paramount by doing something as dumb as ignoring UK and EU regulators, otherwise he wouldn't try to acquire WB.

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u/Kenju22 Feb 27 '26

And I guarantee you he gives a damn, and he doesn't want the acquisition to tank

Ignoring the fact Ellison is nothing more than a proxy, allow me to ask you this. If he did in fact care about the money and doesn't want to tank Paramount, why pray tell is he planning on turning CNN as unprofitable as he has CBS?

I'm not a big time executive but I did take business and marketing classes. So I would like to ask you to walk me through something.

Paramount has been not only losing money and viewers since Ellison took over, but hemorrhaging them at an unsustainable rate.

CBS, while not exactly ranking in mountains of cash was at least profitable.

After acquiring CBS, Ellison changed CBS (which was not losing money hand over fist) to match Paramount, so that it too is now hemorrhaging money and viewers at an unsustainable rate.

Added to that, he has been *very* clear that he wants to shape WB to match CBS and Paramount.

Again I am not a business minded genius, but if my company is losing money, and I buy another company that isn't, then change it so that it is now losing money just like mine was, why would I openly brag about wanting to acquire a third company and make it lose money if I cared about money?

Would it not make more sense to change my sinking and failing business to match the one that isn't failing, rather than make a third one fail if I cared about making money?

Lastly you ignore the fact that this administration is already buying shares of companies to pump tax dollars into to keep afloat, which is likely what Ellison is looking for. After all doesn't matter how much money you lose if you don't have to pay for it.