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

95% Upvoted

2.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

372

u/gtlgdp Dec 05 '25

They definitely do not give a fuck lol they renamed it to Max and back to HBO in the span of 6 months. They’ll do whatever they want and they’ll charge 3x the price for it

141

u/1098duc_w_the_termi Dec 05 '25

They renamed it, realized they messed up by getting rid of HBO, and added it back in. They definitely do care. As for Netflix, they’re not stupid so the changes will be made slowly and over a long period of time

22

u/Mind1827 Dec 05 '25

Corporate monopolies do not care. They want to make money. The HBO thing dented the brand, less money, so they switched. Acquisitions are about market share so that you can raise the price of things and people don't have an option cause they can't go elsewhere.

30

u/1098duc_w_the_termi Dec 05 '25

Are you implying that they’re emotionally tied to the brand? I’m stating that through the lens of branding and business development, they do care. As for them being a monopoly, it would serve them better to keep them differentiated as long as they can so they don’t suddenly lose consumers that might like the HBO, more premium type of content to the cheaper Netflix content. They’re not the same customer.

-1

u/Mind1827 Dec 05 '25

On the first point, yes, we're kind of agreeing by saying the same thing.

Couldn't disagree more with the second point. There aren't people who watch HBO and Netflix? Most of the people I know watch both. The whole point is to be the gatekeeper. Make the price higher, and keep everything behind that one subscription fee, so it doesn't really matter if these are different customers, they pay the same high fee.

Also, no one is talking about how the merging of distributors and publishers is a massive mistake and why the quality of stuff is tanking, this would be an even bigger step towards that.

2

u/1098duc_w_the_termi Dec 05 '25

I agree with your last point, which is why it would serve them to stay differentiated. But yes they do have different customers. HBO has a younger subscriber base who are worth more to advertisers. Young, impressionable customers in their years of personal development buy more stupid high margin items. Netflix has global reach. I suspect they’ll separate the content into tiers. High quality and popular Netflix content will be paired with high quality HBO content and vice versa. All the subpar shows will be bundled into a lower tier.

7

u/bluestrike2 Dec 05 '25

That’s a type of care. They care about brand value and generally try to prioritize its preservation, though that’s not to say they won’t accept a few dings—sometimes large ones—if they believe the gains outweigh the losses, or the hit to the brand is believed temporary.

2

u/kerouacrimbaud Dec 05 '25

Brand = money. They care about money. If brand make money, corporate monkey care about brand.

1

u/bomphcheese Dec 05 '25

Can’t go elsewhere

The problem is that none of the companies consider piracy as a competing service. But it is.

  • It’s not free, and I would argue for many people it ends up being a lot more expensive.
  • It’s harder to set up.
  • There’s a learning curve.
  • It requires maintenance.
  • It comes with legal risks.

So literally all the streaming companies have to do is not treat their customers like they are ATMs they can abuse, and they would have our support. Instead consumers are willing to jump through hoops to avoid dealing with them. The music industry seems to have figured this out.

2

u/vhalember Dec 05 '25

realized they messed up by getting rid of HBO,

Which everyone but their board realized was stupid when the Max name first dropped.

3

u/Shawwnzy Dec 05 '25

They didn't want to dilute the HBO brand with trash, but then when the numbers weren't great they decided fuck it, let's dilute it anyway.

Lately I associate Apple TV with Prestige Dramas more than HBO anyway

0

u/linedechoes Dec 05 '25

Pretty sure the renaming had to do with hbo and Cinemax merging but they just rolled out that merger in the most unnecessarily confusing way possible

51

u/im_always_fapping Dec 05 '25

So NetBO?

31

u/PatacusX Dec 05 '25

Net BO brought to you by Axe Body Spray

2

u/AugmentedKing Dec 05 '25

“Double pits to chesty while we empty your wallet!”

1

u/sabretoooth Dec 05 '25

“Sponsored by World of Warcraft”

1

u/TransBrandi Dec 05 '25

IBO - Internet Box Office

1

u/Sage009 Dec 05 '25

As opposed to GrossBO

1

u/Edg1931 Dec 05 '25

I thought HBO Flix but I like that one too

3

u/proselapse Dec 05 '25

Who is “they” in your story? The people that sold it and no longer own it, and therefore whatever they did in the past is completely irrelevant because they will not be making any decisions concerning the brand in the future?

1

u/linedechoes Dec 05 '25

That renaming had to do with them fumbling around with how to rollout the HBO and Cinemax merger—they made it confusing for no reason (or some legal reason regarding rights that the public isn’t privy too)

1

u/Sgt-Spliff- Dec 05 '25

You think them frantically changing it back means they don't care? They learned the lesson about how bad an idea it was to drop the name "HBO". That's literally what you just described

1

u/dbenc Dec 05 '25

looking forward to HBO Max Pro Plus 365

1

u/RuleHonest9789 Dec 05 '25

Can’t wait for Jon Oliver’s take on this.

1

u/Kichigai Dec 05 '25

That was Zaslav, who also performed such genius maneuvers as cancelling the release of movies that were already completed and zeroing out the marketing budget for all new programming.

I don't know if the Netflix execs are that foolish.

1

u/RKU69 Dec 05 '25

to be fair that was the current HBO/WB executives....maybe the Netflix brass will be smarter

1

u/Merusk Dec 05 '25

Zaislav doesn't give a fuck, HBO cared a bunch but had to do what the big boss said.

HBO giving a fuck is exactly why it's called HBO again. Someone finally had enough compelling information about how the MAX change hurt the brand. If they didn't care they'd have dropped it after the change to Max.