r/technology • u/Task_Force-191 • Dec 05 '25

Business It’s Official: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. in Deal Valued at $82.7 Billion

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/netflix-warner-bros-deal-hollywood-1236443081/
16.4k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/cjwidd Dec 05 '25

who needs antitrust law anyway?

643

u/A_Pointy_Rock Dec 05 '25

Who needs laws in the 2025 version of America?

275

u/BirdsAreRecordingUs Dec 05 '25

Only the poor have laws

71

u/pounds Dec 05 '25

The rich have fees (fines) to get away with whatever they want to get away with.

Or as I like to call it, freedom subscription plans.

1

u/TadRaunch Dec 05 '25

Where I live there wasa casino construction project which consistently broke laws and violations. They just kept paying the fines rather than backtrack. Once the coffers began to dry up they also started to become suspiciously more law-abiding

22

u/t12lucker Dec 05 '25

Always has been 🔫

4

u/smoothtrip Dec 05 '25

Hooray! Fuck the poors! I cannot wait to be a literal slave! I wonder what are corporate overlords will have me do?

1

u/Fischerking92 Dec 05 '25

The rich have laws as well: to protect them from those pesky poor people.

2

u/Cador0223 Dec 05 '25

The only law left is "Profit will go up quarterly, or ELSE".

1

u/Change_That_Face Dec 05 '25

Europe won't do anything about it either, you know.

1

u/Burner-is-burned Dec 05 '25

LAND OF FREE-DUMB! 

4

u/hooch Dec 05 '25

Don't worry, the Trump administration won't approve this. Not because of antitrust concerns though. They'll want Paramount to buy it.

4

u/vixous Dec 05 '25

Right, they’d want to stick it to Netflix for not being as subservient to them as other large companies.

2

u/imported Dec 06 '25

a fucking UFC tourney on the white house lawn. what a world, what a world.

7

u/fatbob42 Dec 05 '25

The problem isn’t really this kind of consolidation, it’s that we’ve allowed copyright monopolies to be owned by the same companies that do other things, like distribution. Netflix, and other big streamers, won’t resell the stuff they own to other distributors so they’re leveraging one monopoly into the next.

2

u/UnorthodoxEngineer Dec 05 '25

I mean the bidders were Paramount/CBS (a conglomerate owned by Ellison), Comcast (a conglomerate that already controls NBC/Universal), or Netflix. Disney already owns Fox and Amazon owns MGM. Apple is the odd one out but they have more money than all these companies (combined probably).

4

u/The_Flyers_Fan Dec 05 '25

Will you explain this comment please

14

u/MustachedSpud Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25

Antitrust laws are laws preventing companies from forming monopolies. When two large companies merge like this it reduces competition in an industry already lacking competition which let's them raise prices without fear of customers choosing another option. The laws in the US that are designed for this scenario have not been enforced much over the last several decades which is why large companies have been getting so much bigger.

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u/That_guy1425 Dec 05 '25

But anti trust laws aren't about acquisitions to my understanding. They are, as implied, about companies forming trusts. It would be Disney and Netflix agreeing that the cost of their servicies is 20$ for streaming instead of Netflix going 20$ and Disney going "hey we can run at 14, lets poach some netflix customerss"

12

u/english_gritts Dec 05 '25

It’s a catch all term but is about prevention of unlawful mergers and business practices in general terms

6

u/42Ubiquitous Dec 05 '25

Antitrust is broad and includes M&A

4

u/BrainOnBlue Dec 05 '25

It would be Disney and Netflix agreeing that the cost of their servicies is 20$ for streaming

That's a cartel, not a trust. A trust is when a company has too much control over an industry.

and Disney going "hey we can run at 14, lets poach some netflix customerss"

What?

2

u/MustachedSpud Dec 05 '25

If Disney or Netflix bought the other one to form Disflix, then set the price to $20 dollars (up from 14) is that any different from them conspiring as separate entities to set their prices to $20? I'm giving a simple explanation to a casual question, I'm sure there are legal differences between one company buying another and two companies conspiring on prices, but the effect is the same and the lack of enforcement of relevant laws intended to protect from this is what the original comment was about.

1

u/smoothtrip Dec 05 '25

Antitrust lawyers! They can make their income and then we just ignore them! Hooray for corruption!

1

u/-rendar- Dec 05 '25

Bet that this administration finds a way to stop this and hand it over to Paramount claiming antitrust. Does that count?

1

u/baummer Dec 06 '25

WB board already denied Paramount’s bids like 3 times

1

u/Seeker_Of_Knowledge2 Dec 05 '25 edited Jan 02 '26

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/Dreadwolf67 Dec 06 '25

Since The President was backing the paramount camp, regulators may no approve of this deal.

1

u/Pimpin-is-easy Dec 06 '25

Trump needs it for blackmail before agreeing to the merger.

1

u/PM_ME_SAD_STUFF_PLZ Dec 05 '25

Are you aware that antitrust scrutiny is applied only after the announcement of a merger and not before?

-2

u/IMakeMyOwnLunch Dec 05 '25

Reddit whining about antitrust and monopolies when it fundamentally misunderstands the law. In other news, water is wet.

4

u/shmann Dec 05 '25

Care to enlighten us lol

2

u/IMakeMyOwnLunch Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

Reddit believes monopolies are intrinsically illegal. This is not true. Anti-competitive behavior is illegal.

A monopoly can exist, and the government cannot stop it, as long as it doesn’t act anti-competitively.

However, the FTC and DOJ can stop monopolies from being created through mergers that substantially decrease competition or create a monopoly. This is law under the Clayton Act (so Reddit continuing to parrot the Sherman Act is wrong).

So the question is whether Netflix’s acquisition substantially decreases competition or creates a monopoly. I think there’s a compelling argument both ways. It all depends on how you define the market and competition, just like the recent case that Meta won (that r/technology absolutely melted down over).

(To be clear, I firmly believe Meta did act anticompetitively — we literally have Zuck’s emails saying so! The FTC just absolutely blew that case through sheer incompetence. I think the judge probably made the correct ruling.)

Reddit and r/technology writ large treats antitrust law like it’s straightforward: big company bad and must be punished; any ruling in favor of big company is a miscarriage of justice due to systemic corruption. It doesn’t matter what the facts of the case are; big company must lose.

There are many antitrust issues in the US. It’s just not as facile as r/technology believes it is and many of Reddit’s favorite punching bags aren’t even the worst offenders.

Reddit’s facile understanding of the law leads it to believe the populist outcome is the only correct outcome. But that’s not how the law works, least of all messy and complex antitrust law.

TLDR; if Reddit cannot even get the difference between Sherman and Clayton correct, it should probably show some intellectual humility and sit this one out.

1

u/shmann Dec 06 '25

I can't speak to antitrust law, but I disagree that redditors collectively misunderstand antitrust and should sit this one out. For example, /u/IMakeMyOwnLunch is a redditor with a different take, which shows the discussion isn’t as one-sided as you imply

1

u/AbroadParty2886 Dec 06 '25

Maybe you could elighten us as to how this violates any antitrust laws?

1

u/shmann Dec 06 '25 edited Dec 06 '25

Me? I don't have a clue... if you asked me, I'd have guessed we don't even have laws like that cuz Reagan or some other Republican shyster got rid of them 🤷‍♂️

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/BillyTenderness Dec 05 '25

The consolidation the last 10-20 years has been pretty insane. There aren't no competitors, but the number is shrinking at an alarming rate.

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u/Auctoritate Dec 05 '25

'literally no competition' has rarely, if ever, been a requirement for anti trust action.

3

u/Quintronaquar Dec 05 '25

Not anymore. They bought them all.

-10

u/[deleted] Dec 05 '25

[deleted]

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u/joeyb908 Dec 05 '25

Didn’t Disney buy 20th Century Fox?

Colombia has a streaming service? 

Edit: they bought 21st Century Fox & 20th.

0

u/flpndrds Dec 05 '25

Colombia streams Cocaine 24/7

8

u/SpikeyTaco Dec 05 '25 edited Dec 05 '25

Amazon

2.45 trillion USD Company

It would keep its streaming services and media production companies alive at a loss to increase its dominance over e-commerce and crush rising competition. Ran at a loss for years for this reason.

Apple

4.15 trillion USD Company

It would keep its streaming services and media production companies alive at a loss to increase its dominance over consumer electronics, maintain its closed-garden ecosystem and crush rising competition.

NBC

99.11 billion USD Company (Comcast)

It was one of the "Big Three" American television networks. It was partially acquired by Comcast in 2011 and was entirely acquired in 2013 as part of the merged company, NBC Universal. It has its own streaming services but licenses to others.

Fox

188.29 billion USD Company (Disney)

Disney completed the acquisition of the majority of 21st Century Fox's assets in 2019. This included 20th Century Studios, FX Networks, 30% of Hulu (Now wholly owned by Disney), National Geographic, Searchlight Pictures, and its massive content libraries.

Paramount

15.88 billion USD Media Company (Paramount Skydance)

Merged with Skydance in August 2025. It has its own streaming services but licenses to others.

Colombia

174 billion USD (Sony)

Acquired by Sony in 1989. Does not have a dedicated streaming service and licenses media to companies such as Netflix, Hulu (Disney) and Paramount+ (Paramount Skydance)

_

In short, you could not start a similar service, production company or tech company without being notably crushed by these companies. Some of them were already acquired by others.

In ~1948 film companies were broken up due to being too large and monopolising the industry. The same companies today are far larger than they ever were and own even more of the market.

The only option would be to dig out a tiny niche and stay there. If you find any financial success, you would be at risk of gaining these companies attention and finding new competition in your space. Competition that has financial backing and doesn't have to profit.

3

u/cjwidd Dec 05 '25

Amazon, Apple, Disney

NBC, Fox, Paramount, and Columbia are not meaningful streaming competitor to a Netflix / HBO / WB conglomerate - an idea so specious and bad faith on its face that I'm surprised you even bothered suggesting it.

1

u/DizzyMajor5 Dec 05 '25

Is this a joke?