As Warner Takeover Fears Shake Up the Deal, Paramount Blames Netflix

A landmark merger, and the checks and power plays hovering behind it

“Paramount Global””’s “Paramount SkyDance” is zeroing in on “Netflix”, the biggest former rival in a prior takeover battle, as it moves toward its “Warner Bros. Discovery” acquisition and shakes up the global media landscape—aiming it as the epicenter of a fierce backlash.

According to a report by U.S. political outlet “Politico” on the 9th (local time), Paramount SkyDance has sent a surprise letter to the U.S. “Department of Justice” strongly condemning Netflix’s alleged covert tactics to manipulate public opinion.

“Makan Delrahim”, Paramount SkyDance’s top general counsel, said in the letter that Netflix “has cleverly incited regulators and key stakeholders, urging them to turn their backs on this century’s acquisition.”

He added that Netflix’s “fidgety, panic-adjacent response, paradoxically, clearly shows how strongly they are perceiving Paramount’s expansion as a ‘fatal threat’.”

Union backlash and Netflix’s rebuttal put truth in the crosshairs

Paramount’s unusually aggressive offensive erupted at a finely timed moment, with opposition from the U.S. ‘labor camp’ reaching a critical point amid recent debate over the Warner Bros. takeover.

Earlier, the U.S. “International Brotherhood of Teamsters”, representing about 15,000 film-industry truck driver members, said the merger would cause “catastrophic consequences” that would threaten the livelihoods of workers across the nationwide film and TV industries, and it moved to put a legal brake on the deal at the Department of Justice.

Paramount strongly suspects that Netflix has been secretly steering the union with a carefully constructed frame—deliberately highlighting past Disney’s Fox acquisition—while arguing that Paramount’s ‘Warner Bros.’ deal would also have an irreparable negative impact on organized labor.

Netflix, however, immediately drew a line, calling it an “utterly baseless ‘speculation’” and “a witch hunt.”

A senior Netflix executive said, “We already cleanly withdrew from that acquisition battle months ago, and we are now focused solely on strengthening our company’s ‘global business’ competitiveness,” expressing displeasure.

Meanwhile, Paramount previously, in February, poured in overwhelming ‘financial firepower’—$31 per share and a total value of $111 billion (about 169 trillion won)—to completely fend off Netflix, which had been considered a leading acquisition candidate, and to close a mega-deal with Warner Bros. Discovery. Whether the truth lies in a winner’s ease or a loser’s pushback is expected to be hidden—or revealed—at the edge of the U.S. Justice Department’s pen.