Netflix assures its workers that the possible merger with Warner will not cause studio closures or overlaps in functions
Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos sent a letter to employees to reassure them about the possible acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), assuring that there will be no study closures nor overlaps of functions. In the document, collected this Monday by Bloomberg, Peters and Sarandos defend that the operation seeks to “strengthen one of the most iconic studios in Hollywood, support employment and ensure a solid future for film and television production.” Likewise, they reaffirm the commitment to maintaining WBD’s film releases.
Paramount and Netflix, two giants of the American audiovisual industry, are facing each other in the attempt to acquire the emblematic company WBD. WBD reached an agreement with Netflix to sell the company for $82.7 billionincluding debt, after which Paramount entered the scene with a hostile takeover bid for $108 billion.
The fight between the two giants has opened the door to greater business concentration in a sector already dominated in the United States by a handful of large groups that bring together film, media, television and streaming. The merger has generated union and political criticism.
On the other hand, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) denounced that the operation could violate antitrust laws, and senators such as Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Richard Blumenthal have warned the Department of Justice that the new company would have “the ability to increase television prices in a context of inflation.” Peters and Sarandos assure that the combination of Netflix and WBD would have a lower audience share than that of YouTube or that which would be generated by a possible merger between Paramount and WBD.
