Paramount is back in the game. David Ellison’s new bid for Warner Bros. Discovery — at what Semafor hears is above the $31 starting point — puts the media scion back in the running for a company that should have been his from the start.
It also puts Netflix on the defensive, forcing it to either bump or defend its more complicated agreement to buy Warner and its franchise-rich library. Ted Sarandos can afford the price, but the politics are closing in. Trump has taken direct aim at a Netflix board member who said Democrats would look to punish companies that kowtowed to Trump once they took power again. Sarandos went on the BBC — which is itself being sued by Trump — to dismiss the president’s comments as social-media noise. “This is a business deal, it’s not a political deal,” the Netflix co-CEO said.
But everything is political these days: The president is keen to see Warner-owned CNN neutered. Senate Republicans want to see Netflix humbled. Senate Democrats want to make Ellison the face of influence-peddling in Trump’s Washington. And state attorneys general are worried about anticompetitive effects and job losses. The growing political noise raises questions about whether Netflix, which has had one of the cleanest business strategies and investment stories in media, blundered into its first big M&A swing.