NETFLIX chilled as it drops out of WARNER BROs. DISCOVERY bidding…

In recent years the studio landscape has shifted significantly with various companies buying other companies and either merging with or eradicating their competition. Sometimes the effects are immediate and obvious, other times it takes a hard look at who owns what and what parent company might now have a monetary interest in smaller outlets.

One of the biggest in recent history has been the race to buy Warner Bros. Discovery – with both Netflix and Paramount Skydance making bigger and bigger bids. There was a lot at stake and either purchaser would create a seismic shift in the system and the risk of a monopoly.

It appears, as of late Thursday 26th February that there’s now a winner with Paramount Skydance offering an amount that Netflix says it won’t match and is subsequently dropping out of the bidding war.

“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance‘s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid,” a statement from Netflix explained. Netflix has originally struck a deal with them, but by the rules, Warner Bros. Discovery was allowed to entertain ‘superior offers’

There have been concerns about various institutions in the mix and the way that politics appears to have influenced various networks and streamers who need governmental approval  – specifically and supposedly to keep the industry healthy and to avoid any institution from having too much power. Realistically, the current climate has meant various institutions have felt partisan pressures from law-makers. The current deal, as it stands, will need that formal stamp of approval. If it does go through, expect changes of different magnitudes… one only has to look at recent history to see those can be controversial.