Touting Warner Bros. offer, Netflix execs vow to keep releasing movies

2 days ago 8

Netflix leaders doubled down Monday connected their volition to acquire portion of Warner Bros. Discovery, portion besides looking to alleviate concerns successful Hollywood astir the blockbuster deal's imaginable interaction connected the movie business.

In a regulatory filing, Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos pledged that the streaming elephantine would proceed to merchandise movies to theaters.

"We haven't prioritized theatrical successful the past due to the fact that that wasn't our concern astatine Netflix," the brace said successful a missive addressed to Netflix employees, highlighting the company's strategical pivot. "When this woody closes, we volition beryllium successful that business."

"We're strengthening 1 of Hollywood's astir iconic studios, supporting jobs, and ensuring a steadfast aboriginal for movie and TV production," they added.

Peters and Sarandos besides expressed optimism that Netflix's projected $83 cardinal acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery's TV and movie assets volition triumph authorities regulatory approval. Warner is location to the storied movie workplace that created hits similar "Barbie" and fashionable franchises specified arsenic "The Hobbit" and "Harry Potter."

The missive comes arsenic Netflix faces a competing bid from Paramount Skydance (the genitor institution of CBS News), which connected December 8 launched a hostile bid to buy each of Warner Bros. Discovery for astir $108 billion. Unlike Netflix, Paramount is besides offering to bargain Warner's cablegram brands, which see CNN, Discovery Channel, HBO, TBS and TNT.

Netflix declined further comment.

The company's connection has drawn disapproval from lawmakers including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who said successful a connection earlier this period that a Netflix-Warner Bros. woody would "create 1 monolithic media elephantine with power of adjacent to fractional of the streaming market."

"We expect the regulatory reappraisal process to absorption connected the marketplace stock wrong the larger tv landscape, but besides apt place however important the accumulation of caller contented is for the imaginable combined players erstwhile determining the eventual powerfulness the caller entity would clasp successful Hollywood and crossed the U.S.," analysts with concern advisory firrm MoffettNathanson said successful a report. "Similarly, we would expect the European regulators to absorption connected marketplace powerfulness for accumulation on with streaming subscriber marketplace share."

Edited by Alain Sherter