Netflix To Purchase Warner Bros. For $82.7 Billion

Netflix’s has finalized a deal to buy Warner Bros. from Warner Bros. Discovery for $82.7 billion.

The agreement marks one of the most sweeping power shifts in modern entertainment, pulling nearly a century of animation and family-entertainment history into the orbit of the world’s largest streamer.

The acquisition, announced today, will fold Warner Bros.’ film and TV studios, HBO, and HBO Max into Netflix once WBD completes its planned 2026 spinoff of Discovery Global. According to a release from the companies, WBD shareholders would receive $23.25 in cash plus $4.50 in Netflix stock per share, with a collar tied to Netflix’s trading price. The deal has unanimous board approval at both companies and is expected to close 12–18 months after the networks’ separation.

Netflix leaders pitched the deal as a way to expand the company’s creative and production footprint while preserving Warner Bros.’ existing operations, including theatrical releases.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in today’s release:

Our mission has always been to entertain the world. By combining Warner Bros.’ incredible library of shows and movies — from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favorites 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.

Fellow co-CEO Greg Peters added:

This acquisition will improve our offering and accelerate our business for decades to come. Warner Bros. has helped define entertainment for more than a century and continues to do so with phenomenal creative executives and production capabilities. With our global reach and proven business model, we can introduce a broader audience to the worlds they create — giving our members more options, attracting more fans to our best-in-class streaming service, strengthening the entire entertainment industry and creating more value for shareholders.

WBD president and CEO David Zaslav wrapped things up, saying:

Today’s announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world to bring to even more people the entertainment they love to watch the most. For more than a century, Warner Bros. has thrilled audiences, captured the world’s attention, and shaped our culture. By coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world’s most resonant stories for generations to come.

If regulators approve it, the merger would reshape not just the streaming wars but also the animation landscape, centralizing some of the medium’s most influential catalogs under one corporate strategy and giving Netflix control of a vast stretch of Western animation history.

If finalized, Warner Bros. Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and titles across the Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, and DC animation universes would sit alongside Netflix originals.

Today’s announcement will launch a long review period in which regulators, industry observers, analysts, and the companies themselves will determine how the deal ultimately takes shape and what it means for workers and customers of both companies. What is clear for now is that the global entertainment business is on the edge of a major realignment, one that could have lasting effects on how animation and filmed entertainment are produced and distributed.