I mean theaters have been struggling since the shutdown. It's just another nail in the coffin.

It's interesting to see the number people losing their shit over this deal, especially those that don't even have a dog in the fight.

Who doesn't have a dog in the fight of whether theatrical movies survive?

There mergers are terrible for the industry. Fox used to be a major player in making films. Now they've made 8 films in 2025 -- and that's counting Avatar Fire and Ash.

I don't have a lot of faith it will happen but hoping the merger gets blocked on antitrust grounds.

But if Fox didn't get acquired by Disney they would have been acquired by Comcast. Same with WB, if Netflix didn't acquire them, Paramount would have. 20th Century Fox also came into being because of a merger. I'm not sure what the alternative is.

Where's the contradiction? I said all these mergers are bad for the industry. I just would caveat that by saying not only is a merger with Netflix bad for the total movie output from Hollywood, it's a disaster for theaters and almost a death knell for physical media.

Saw a post about a certain Senator losing their shit about this deal.

As far as the future of the theatrical experience....

Look at the amount of content available, on-demand to the average consumer.

Look at the overall cost savings of purchasing something on-demand versus going to a theater..

If there was another actor/writer strike or pandemic that halted theatrical releases (just like before), do you think the average consumer really gives two-shits if they don't get to see the next Avengers film?

..and yet there wasn't this amount of panic when Disney purchased everything. Everyone seems to be ok with that.

https://about.netflix.com/en/news/ne...or-warner-bros

Netflix Declines to Raise Offer for Warner Bros.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Feb. 26, 2026 – Netflix, Inc. today announced that it has declined to raise its offer for Warner Bros. Netflix had earlier received notice from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) that its Board of Directors has determined Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY) latest proposal constitutes a “Superior Proposal” under the terms of WBD’s existing merger agreement with Netflix. Netflix issued the following statement in response from co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters:

The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.

Warner Bros. is a world-class organization, and we want to thank David Zaslav, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Bruce Campbell, Brad Singer and the WBD Board for running a fair and rigorous process. We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S. But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.

Netflix’s business is healthy, strong and growing organically, powered by our slate and best-in-class streaming service. This year, we’ll invest approximately $20 billion in quality films and series and will expand our entertainment offering. Consistent with our capital allocation policy, we’ll also resume our share repurchase program.

We will continue to do what we’ve done for more than 20 years as a public company: delight our members, profitably grow our business, and drive long-term shareholder value.

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

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bu...in-1236516763/

I also backed out of raising my bid.

It is accomplished!

I don't get it.

Paramount's last earnings call was yesterday and didn't seem impressive, mostly because of the last acquisition they did. Their stock rose slightly on this news but just a blip compared to how it's been downward trending.

Meanwhile Netflix stock soared.

And doesn't WB have to pay Netflix some kind of penalty if they back out?

I think part of Paramount’s bid is paying the penalty.

So Netflix made 2.8 billion for basically doing nothing
Genius.

I don't understand how any of this works. Probably is why I am not rich.

They agreed to a deal for WB and had a clause where if WB backs out (which they did) they owe Netflix a penalty for wasting their time.

They were both all-cash bids. So it doesn't matter if Paramount's stock tanks, or even if they go bankrupt after the purchase, because all the current stockholders got $31 in cash per share.

Also, Paramount agreed to pay the termination fee for WBD backing out of the Netflix deal.

This is the problem with capitalism, especially a stock-market driven one. It's not at all about what's best for the company, but what's "best" for the investors, and that's typically getting top dollar for their shares.

It doesn't matter to the offer if the stock tanks but it should matter to the Paramount investors. But their stock went up (but is still way down) so who knows.

Man you have to wonder if Netflix was counting on the WB backing out from the very beginning.

So the WB gets 7 BILLION from Paramount if the deal isn't approved by regulators.

This whole thing has to be one be big con.

Starting to sound like legal money laundering.

Paramount announced that this will merge with Paramount+, but HBO will still be it's own brand.

https://variety.com/2026/streaming/n...ntent=&utm_id=

Both the breakup fee and the regulator disapproval fee are standard for these types of purchases/mergers. One doesn't commit to paying $83 billion in cash for a company in the hope that the other side backs out and has to pay you $2.8 billion. The breakup/backout fee was explicitly to discourage either side from backing out of the deal, because it would hurt financially to do so. But Paramount was so desperate for the deal they were willing to cover that cost. Note that Netflix would've had to pay that fee if they had been the ones to back out of the deal.

Likewise, these kinds of deals take a lot of work and cause a lot of disruption to the business being purchased, and they don't want to deal with a year of getting ready for the deal, only for it to fall through due to regulators. The deal is definitely a win-win for WBD shareholders, since either they get their shares purchased at a premium price, or WBD gets an infusion of cash for the trouble. But that's the sort of deal Paramount had to present to beat out Netflix.

Was worried about Netflix being $50+ with the WB merger. Now I am worried about P+ being $50+ after merger.

Disney+Hulu+HBO Max is $30 for the ad-free combo, so I'd expect the "base" price to be around that, maybe more for the 4K + more streams option.

Killing the brand HBO would have been stupid and it's beyond me that for a time HBO itself did just do that with Max. HBO is such an established brand that people associate with the highest quality of TV. You have to keep the brand alive. Combining both services seems like a logical choice too. Paramount+ has a lot of good shows, but most of them are Taylor Sheridan shows and won't be around forever. The reach of P+ isn't that far, so combining both services will make the streamer more attractive.