In December, what seemed like out of nowhere, Netflix wanted to buy part of Warner Bros., one being their streaming service, HBO Max, for 83 billion dollars. 

Buying Warner Bros. would make a big difference to any company as they could acquire a variety of well-known characters like the Harry Potter franchise and Game of Thrones series. Additionally, they could gain different superheroes like Batman and Superman

With Netflix wanting a piece of Warner Bros., it came as a surprise with another company wanting to jump on this trend. So, just a couple days later Paramount decided to put in their own bid for the century old entertainment platform. They offered 103 billion dollars for not just the streaming, but the studio too. This meant that they wanted companies like CNN or Discovery. 

Now, in a bidding war, Netflix wanted to step up their game without needing to increase the money they already put on the table. So, they decided that they will pay in cash to receive some of Warner Bros. Even after Paramount also wanted to pay in cash for Warner Bros., it ultimately ended with Warner Bros. declining Paramount’s deal and Netflix taking the upperhand. So far, the deal is going to be closed by the end of 2026 or early 2027.

This concept of buying and merging different companies hasn’t always come with the best results. “Study after study puts the failure rate of mergers and acquisitions somewhere between 70% and 90%,” wrote Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School scholar, and colleagues in a report. This statistic matches with the merging history of Warner Bros. Back in 2018, AT&T bought a part of Warner Bros. what used to be called Time Warner and renamed it to WarnerMedia. This new company had a hard time finding profits and doing well in the stock market and so merged again with Discovery Inc. to become Warner Bros Discovery. 

So even with Netflix owning parts of Warner Bros. only time will tell if it was a good investment for not only the consumers, but the company itself.