Donald Trump says Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros “could be a problem”
Donald Trump has warned that Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros “could be a problem” due to their possible market share.
The US president was speaking as he hosted the Kennedy Centre Honours on December 7th, two days after it was announced that the streaming giant had won the long-sought-after acquisition bid for Warner Bros’ entire back catalogue.
However, the bid still needs governmental approval, and Trump’s latest comments suggest Netflix may face difficulty in getting it over the line.
Trump admitted to reporters: “There’s no question about it. It could be a problem,” before adding that the deal would have to “go through a process and we’ll see what happens,” per The Independent.
Although voicing his reservations, Trump was quick to note that Netflix is “a great company” and its CEO, Ted Sarandos, is a “fantastic man”.
Notably, if the Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros isn’t approved, the streaming service has agreed to pay a $5.8 billion penalty fee, which would be the largest in history.
Many of the president’s concerns seem to revolve around the significant and unparalleled stake in the industry that Netflix would acquire if the deal were to proceed.
“They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Bros, you know, that share goes up a lot, so, I don’t know. I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share,” he said.
Trump also has connections to Paramount Skydance, who lost the bidding war for Warner Bros. Its CEO, David Ellison, is the son of one of his biggest financial supporters, Larry Ellison.
It was recently revealed that Trump was pushing for a reboot of the Rush Hour franchise to be put in action at Paramount, which has since been confirmed to be in the works.
Upon announcing the acquisition of Warner Bros, Netflix said in a press release, “The transaction is expected to close after the previously announced separation of WBD’s Global Networks division, Discovery Global, into a new publicly-traded company, which is now expected to be completed in Q3 2026.”
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