How Netflix outplayed Hollywood’s power brokers to seize Warner Bros

For more than a decade, Hollywood’s traditional studios regarded Netflix as a flashy pretender — a company that mailed DVDs, uploaded shows and spent too much money chasing subscribers. Executives scoffed when analysts predicted the streamer would one day rival the major studios.

Yet this week, in a turn of events that even seasoned industry hands describe as “unthinkable,” Netflix clinched an $83bn agreement to acquire Warner Bros and its parent assets, upending a century of studio dominance. The surprise victory caps a whirlwind six-week auction that pitted the streamer against some of the most deep-pocketed forces in media, including David Ellison’s Paramount-backed bid, Saudi capital, and Comcast’s institutional firepower, the Financial Times reported.

Polymarket bettors gave Netflix