Warner Bros. Discovery rejected the $30/share takeover bid from David Ellison's Paramount Skydance, with WBD unanimously backing the deal with Netflix.

Hollywood has unleashed a wave of fear that the Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros will further erode the struggling movie business

While these issues are no doubt important, one aspect of the Netflix deal has been relatively overlooked: the streamer’s decision to cut out Discovery’s portfolio of cable channels from its agreed acq

Netflix would also gain access to a trove of lucrative intellectual property, from Bugs Bunny and Superman to “Friends” and “Game of Thrones.” The closest modern parallel might be Amazon’s acquisition of the former Hollywood power player Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 2023.

The real story of the fight for Warner Bros. Discovery is viewers shifting from studios to tech platforms, impacting how and what you watch.

"Everyone's just like, 'how is David Zaslav going to make so much money when he ran the company into the ground?'" says a studio executive. "The unjustness of that, when all these people are going to be out of work—it should be illegal.

According to a Wednesday report by Bloomberg, Comcast (CMCSA) had valued its media and theme park assets at $81B when the cable giant made its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The report, citing a Warner Bros.