{"id":693928,"date":"2026-06-09T17:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693928\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T17:49:11","slug":"paramount-accuses-netflix-of-campaign-to-derail-wbd-merger-streamer-calls-that-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693928\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Accuses Netflix Of Campaign To Derail WBD Merger, Streamer Calls That “Absurd”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tParamount<\/a> has slammed rival Netflix in a letter to the Department of Justice for campaiging against the Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> merger amid regulatory review of the deal the David Ellison company. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs Paramount pushes forward with its \u2018content-first\u2019 growth strategy, firms like Netflix, Amazon MGM, Disney, Universal, Sony, Lionsgate, A24, Apple, and many others will need to respond in kind, presumably by enhancing their own content creation strategies. (Indeed, Netflix\u2019s panic level response and scorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders against the Transaction shows just how seriously Netflix takes Paramount as a scaled competitor.),\u201d Makan Delrahim, Par\u2019s Chief Legal Officer, wrote in a letter to the DOJ\u2019s Antitrust Division<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter didn\u2019t detail specific actions by Netflix or others. In a statement to Deadline, a Netflix spokesperson disputed the characterization. \u201cThese claims from Paramount Skydance are absurd. We walked away from this deal months ago and remain focused on our own business, not theirs. Ultimately, it\u2019s up to the regulators to approve this deal and determine if it is in the best interest of the industry and all concerned,\u201d the streamer said.<\/p>\n

\n\tWBD had an agreement to sell its studio and streaming operations to Netflix, but with Paramount in hot pursuit. The Warner board ultimately ditched Netflix for what it judged to be a better offer from the Ellisons. The streamer walked away with a $2.8 billion breakup fee.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe June 5 missive obtained by Deadline was responding to a White Paper the Teamsters submitted to the DOJ<\/a> in March laying out concerns around the merger, which is awaiting a green light from the regulator. The UK announced this morning it opened a Phase I inquiry of the merger<\/a> with an August 7 deadline unless it determines a deeper dive is needed. The EU\u2019s initial deadline is July 7 although that could also be extended. News reports over the past few days indicated that Paramount is willing to agree to remedies if needed to get the deal over the finish line.<\/p>\n

\n\tPar has targeted at least $6 billion in savings from the deal and will carry a heavy debt load if and when it closes, triggering anxiety over job cuts and tighter content spending in an already struggling industry. The company has vigorously pushed pack on that scenario and Delrahim did so again in his letter, insisting the merger, instead, would create a more competitive landscape leading to increased content production overall and \u201cmore opportunities for organized labor beyond Paramount\u2019s projects.\u201d \u201cIn short, this deal is a win for the Teamsters and other labor unions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNetflix, Amazon, and Disney dominate subscription streaming today. Paramount and WBD both lag far behind the streaming giants\u2014even on a combined basis \u2026 For Paramount and WBD to compete, they need to pursue a transformative transaction like this one and invest aggressively in capturing audiences\u2019 attention by driving fresh, engaging content across the ecosystem of theatrical releases, streaming, and linear television.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe letter said the cost synergies will mostly come from categories \u201cthat do not touch production labor or union\/guild positions,\u201d including\u00a0duplicative technology infrastructure; back-office functions like finance, legal, human resources, and corporate communications at the parent company level; \u201coptimizing\u201d the combined firm\u2019s real estate footprint; and more efficient market by coordinating advertising spend and cross-promotion across a broader portfolio of platforms and channels.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount said its projected content spend is expected to increase significantly following the transaction.<\/p>\n

\n\tDelrahim also rejected comparisons to the Disney-Fox merger in 2019, a narrative he claims rivals are pushing as a way to undermine the Par-WBD deal.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe understand that as part of its broader proxy war against the Transaction, Netflix has tried to persuade the Teamsters and other stakeholders that Disney\u2019s acquisition of Fox had a negative impact on content production and labor opportunities. Frankly, Netflix\u2019s \u201csky is falling\u201d narrative departs significantly from the ground-truth reality of what actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount has committed to theatrically release at least 30 feature films annually post-acquisition\u2014at least 15 from each studio\u2014with a minimum 45-day theatrical window.<\/p>\n

\n\tPolitico first reported on the letter. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paramount has slammed rival Netflix in a letter to the Department of Justice for campaiging against the Warner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28,24836,300838,4208,10343],"class_list":["post-693928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-doj","tag-nefflix","tag-paramount","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}