Netflix-Warner Bros deal about weakness, not strength

Warner Bros., the company that once shaped culture, has been put up for sale again, this time to Netflix. This is the latest season of the global media’s long-running buy-sell-merge-collapse reality game.

The Silicon Valley streaming service accepted an $83 billion part-stock, part-cash offer announced Friday for production and distribution capacity, including the back catalog of five major Hollywood studios, intellectual property rights (including Superman and Batman) and over-the-top streaming rival HBO Max.

Brave. Many previous players have tried and failed at Warner Bros., from printing giant Time Inc in 1990 to early tech star AOL in 2001, to US telecommunications company AT&T in 2018 and content aggregator Discovery since 2022.