Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters took aim at Paramount’s “entirely expected” hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, arguing that David Ellison’s $6 billion cost savings target would result in job losses.
“[President Trump’s] interest in this are the same as ours which is to create and protect jobs. Where do you think synergies come from? Cutting jobs,” Sarandos told an investor conference hosted by UBS. “We’re not cutting jobs. We’re making jobs.”
Sarandos noted that Netflix’s original productions have employed 140,000 people between 2020 and 2024 across all 50 states and that its contribution to the U.S. economy is about $125 billion. That’s included 500 independent production companies to make roughly 1,000 original projects. Additionally, Netflix has a fully running studio in New Mexico, is spending $1 billion to build a new studio at New Jersey’s Fort Monmouth and has 11 films in production.
“We think it’s a great way to create and protect jobs in the entertainment industry,” Sarandos said. “We’re super confident we’re going to get it across the line.”
Netflix’s $82.7 billion deal, which is expected to reach $2 billion to $3 billion in cost savings per year by its third year, would give the streamer control of Warner Bros. studio and streaming assets, which include HBO, HBO Max and its television and film studios.
While acknowledging that a deal like this is unexpected for the company, Sarandos and Peters said there’s “tremendous opportunity” to continue creating organic growth. They added that they’d unlock more value for Warner Bros. with their streaming platform’s “incredible reach,” which would be “relatively low risk to execute.”
Sarandos added that Netflix would double down on HBO’s brand and history of prestige TV and remains committed to releasing Warner Bros. films theatrically.
“When this deal closes, we are in that business, and we’re going to do it. If we did this deal 24 months ago, all those movies we saw this year do so well at the box office for Warner Brothers would have been released in the same way in theaters, Minecraft, Superman and Weapons, Sinners,” he said. “Those movies will be released by Netflix through theaters, the way Warner Bros. did it before, but with the Warner Brothers operating entity. We think it’s important the way that they create and the way that they drive value. We didn’t buy this company to destroy that value.”
He also said Warner Bros. content licensing is a “really healthy business” that it would continue.
“It’s not as big as ours, and that’s why we haven’t really focused that much on doing it. The growth opportunity and our core business has been greater, but now in this transaction, we own that business,” Sarandos continued. “Channing [Dungey] and that group did a phenomenal job, and we want them to continue to do that phenomenal job.”
Netflix expects its deal to close in 12 to 18 months. The company will have a tough regulatory mountain to climb with the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and overseas regulators all poised to be potential hurdles.
During the conference, Peters and Sarandos pointed to Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge, in which Netflix’s total share of TV time is behind YouTube, Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox and Paramount.
“The regulators have to do their work and define the market the way that they think is right. Clearly, they’ll do their analysis, and we’ll support them with whatever they need in that regard,” Peters said. “But if we go back to the fundamentals of this deal, we are very confident that regulators should and will approve it. At the end of the day, it’s pro consumer, delivers more value to those folks. It’s pro creator, we’re going to increase our content spend and deliver more that’s great for them. That means it drives jobs, it’s pro workers in that regard, it’s pro growth, it’s pro innovation. So we think we’ve got a good story for all of the constituents that we have.”
