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‘Pro-Consumer, Pro-Innovation, Pro-worker, Pro-Creator’: Netflix CEOs Insist WB Acquisition Will Benefit Everyone
Netflix is pitching its $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. as a creator-expanding, job-generating realignment of the entertainment industry.
On Friday’s investor call confirming the deal, executives insisted the merger would mean more opportunities for producers and storytellers, not fewer, in the kind of boardroom speech that only a well-trained executive can deliver.
“This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, [and] pro-creator,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, calling Warner Bros. “an incredible creative machine” whose assets “are more valuable in our business model, and our business model is more valuable with these assets [in it].”
According to Sarandos, Warner Bros.’ century of development infrastructure fills Netflix’s biggest creative gap.
“Their development pool has been building for 100 years. We have been in the original content business for about a decade… our deep development pool is quite shallow,” he admitted.
Access to Warner Bros.’ system and its vast library opens the door to new interpretations and expansions of established IP. Sarandos cited Wednesday as an example of how Netflix can unlock dormant brands: “Prior to Wednesday, the Addams Family probably didn’t carry that much value. We have the ability to unlock storytelling and world building… in ways that are even difficult to imagine today.”
Netflix executives also stressed the deal will increase production activity, especially in the U.S. “We are the largest producer of original content in California,” Sarandos said, noting recent expansions in New Mexico and New Jersey.
The executives on the call claimed that Netflix’s current robust business will benefit Warner Bros., which has been digging itself out of a hole for several years now: “This is a healthy growing business that is going to help another business grow in a more healthy way,” ultimately creating “more jobs across the entire entertainment industry,” fellow co-CEO Greg Peters insisted.
Peters argued that because of Netflix’s distribution and discovery tools, creators at Warner Bros. will be able to share their work with far wider audiences.
“Their stories are going to reach more people. They’re going to attract more fans than they do today.”
It’s also worth noting that, under Netflix, Warner Bros. Television will continue producing for outside buyers, something Netflix itself does not do. “[Warner Bros. is] quite successful at it. We want to keep that successful business operating,” Sarandos said.
Jamie’s Take: I hope that the comments on the call were genuine and that their predictions for the merger come true. But I’m exceptionally skeptical, as M&As very, very rarely benefit consumers or employees of the companies involved.
