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U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he will take part in deciding whether Netflix can proceed with its $72 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, pointing to concerns over the streaming giant's growing market dominance.
"That’s the question. They have a very big market share. And when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that share goes up a lot," Trump said, speaking to reporters at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C., on the proposed merger. "That’s going to be for some economists to tell, and I’ll be involved in that decision."
Trump acknowledged that the deal would require regulatory clearance and noted that it "got to go through a process."
Netflix last week announced a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets, including HBO and HBO Max, in a transaction valued at $27.75 per share, amounting to $72 billion. The combined deal totals approximately $82.7 billion in enterprise value, making it the largest media merger in over a decade.
The acquisition would merge the world’s leading streaming platform with a Hollywood studio known for films such as "Casablanca," "Citizen Kane," "Harry Potter," "The Lord of the Rings," and DC superhero franchises, including Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. It would also bring rival platform HBO Max under Netflix’s control.
The transaction, structured as a cash-and-stock transaction, does not include television networks such as CNN and Discovery, which would be spun off from Warner Bros. prior to the sale.
The proposed merger is expected to draw close scrutiny from federal regulators due to its implications for market concentration.
Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery had put itself up for sale in October after receiving unsolicited offers. Netflix outbid competitors, including Comcast and Paramount Skydance. Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, is a known political ally of Trump.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, has also drawn praise from the president. "He’s done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies," Trump said, referring to Sarandos’s recent visit to the White House.
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