Netflix has struck a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery to buy the legacy Hollywood giant’s studio and streaming business for $72 billion.
The acquisition, announced Friday, would bring two of the industry’s biggest players in film and TV under one roof.
Beyond its namesake television and motion picture division, Warner owns HBO Max and DC Studios. And Netflix has risen to dominance as a household name ubiquitous to on-demand content, while building its own production arm to release popular titles like “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game.”
The cash-and-stock deal is valued at $27.75 per Warner share, giving it a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion. The transaction is expected to close after Warner separates Discovery Global into a new publicly-traded company in the third quarter of 2026.
“Our mission has always been to entertain the world,” said Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix.
“By combining Warner Bros.’ incredible library of shows and movies—from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favourites like Harry Potter and Friends—with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we’ll be able to do that even better. Together, we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling.”
Shares of Warner Bros. rose nearly 3 per cent in premarket trading while shares of Netflix and Paramount fell more than 2 per cent.
Gaining Warner’s legacy studios would mark a notable shift for Netflix’s current movie theatre footprint. Under the proposed acquisition, Netflix has promised to continue theatrical releases for Warner’s studio films — honouring Warner’s contractual agreements for movie releases.
Netflix has kept most of its original content within its core online platform. But there have been a few exceptions, such as limited theatre screenings of a “KPop Demon Hunters” sing-a-long and its coming “Stranger Things” series finale.
Friday’s announcement arrives after a month-long bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. Rumours of interest from Netflix, as well as NBC owner Comcast, started bubbling up in the fall. But Skydance-owned Paramount, which completed its own $8 billion merger in August, had also reportedly made several all-cash offers backed heavily by CEO David Ellison’s family.
Paramount seemed like the frontrunner for some time — and unlike Netflix or Comcast, was reportedly vying to buy Warner’s entire company, including its cable business, housing networks like CNN and Discovery.
