Ted Sarandos is heading to the White House to salvage Netflix‘s bid for Warner Bros‘ crown jewels.
The streamer co-CEO will sit down Thursday with “several administration officials,” Deadline has confirmed. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is among those Sarandos will be talking to, I’m told.
The latest swing by the Executive Mansion by pitchman supreme Sarandos comes as talks between $108 billion hostile takeover protagonist Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery have been extended and the tide seems to be shifting in David Ellison‘s favor.
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After once proclaiming that he wouldn’t “politicize” Paramount, increasingly politically sharp elbowed CEO Ellison just yesterday was a guest of close Donald Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) at the very partisan State of the Union speech.
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In that context, it is unclear right now, if Trump himself will be meeting with Sarandos on Thursday.
Praising both “fantastic” Sarandos and “good friend” Ellison on different occasions over the past months as the moves to take over the iconic studio have occurred, the former Apprentice host has expressed concern about Netflix’s potential market share if the streamer and HBO Max become one.
However, when it comes to a chat tomorrow between POTUS and the exec, “don’t bet against it, Ted knows where power rests,” an insider said of the Executive Mansion visit. “That’s why he’s going to the White House and not (the Department of) Justice.”
The White House had no comment on Sarandos’ dropping by. As has been the case of late as the battle for WBD has become more robust (to put it politely) Netflix did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.
This is all as POTUS recently raged that Netflix needed to axe “racist, Trump Deranged” Susan Rice from its board. The outburst came as the ex-Obama aide admonished corporations and CEO who bent the knee to the administration over the last year. “This is a business deal,” Sarandos diplomatically responded earlier this week when pressed on Trump’s posting against Rice “It’s not a political deal. This deal is run by the Department of Justice in the U.S. and regulators throughout Europe and around the world,” he said. In noted understatement, Sarandos added of Trump: “He likes to do a lot of things on social media.”
While perhaps not quite desperate times requiring desperate measures yet, tomorrow’s White House visit is the second time in as many weeks that Sarandos has walked the corridors of DC power. The aim is, of course, to close Netflix’s $83 billion WBD board-accepted desire for WB’s streaming and studio assets.
On February 3, the streaming chief submitted to a pounding by MAGA loyalists on Netflix having “the wokest content in the history of the world” and being “propaganda” machine for progressives. The POV from a number of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights appeared to come verbatim from a report by a Heritage Foundation spin-off, as exclusively reported by Deadline.
The pressure increasingly had been building on Netflix as a week of extended talks between Paramount and Warner were winding down. Just 24 hours before those talks were to end on Feb. 23, the streamer found itself under the Department of Justice‘s antitrust lens to determine how much leverage Netflix has over the industry. Specifically, if the proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Netflix “may substantially lessen competition, or tend to create a monopoly in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, or Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”
And as we reported today, 11 Republican attorneys general weighed in with a letter to U.S. AG Pam Bondi, insisting that the DOJ heavily scrutinize Netflix’s bid for the iconic studio. Among their concerns – that “a proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Brothers will likely result in undue market concentration that stifles competition and therefore creates higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation for one of America’s major industries — all to the detriment of American consumers.”
Politico was first to report Sarandos’ February 27 White House visit.
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Maybe Netflix should just keep in the bidding war till they sense Larry’s patience and money is running out, then bow out and let nepo grossly overpay for WBD. In a few years the debt and his lack of any coherent plan will sink him. The Netflix can snap Paramount and Warners up on the cheap.
There’s a reason Paramount and Warners have gone on the block and it comes down to “Netflix.” Nobody really knows how to counter Netflix so if ya can’t beat em…
Why is the White House getting involved in this? Seems shady.
Why does he need to do this and why does Netflix need this? Paramount is sinking. Their Q4 numbers are in the toilet. WBD will just help them sink faster.
Netflix doesn’t need WBD. Sarandos saw a shiny object and snapped at it. He should rethink things now. Nepo will get in over his head with debt. Then Sarandos gets everything for cheap later on.
Make a commitment to bringing production back to the USA. Netflix has been pushing hard on international labor for so many years and has driven the industry in its home city of Los Angeles into the ground.
75% of Netflix subscribers are not American so if 75% of their content is not American, why is that an issue? Right now, 50% of their content is American, which means its hugely over-represented really.
Netflix was never going to get WB. Zaslav played them like a fiddle to get Paramount’s price up. Brilliant move that will make for great cinema in its own right. Call it “The Offer: Part Two”