US President Donald Trump poses on the red carpet at the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on December 7, 2025 in Washington, DC, USA.
Gina Moon | Reuters
President Donald Trump expressed skepticism on the issue Sunday night. Netflixacquisition proposal Part of Warner Bros. Discoverysaid this massive deal “could be problematic” because of how much market share Netflix ultimately captures.
President Trump also said he would be involved in the approval process for the deal announced Friday.
Streaming giant Netflix needs regulatory approval for its planned acquisition of streaming assets, including WBD’s movie studio and HBO Max. The transaction has an enterprise value of nearly $83 billion.
Paramount Skydance announced Monday that it will launch a hostile bid to buy all of WBD’s shares after losing to Netflix. Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father, billionaire Larry Ellison, is close to Trump.
“Well, that’s the question,” President Trump said Sunday when asked if he should allow WBD to sign a deal with Netflix.
“They have a huge market share,” Trump said, referring to Netflix.
President Trump told reporters on the red carpet before an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., “If we own Warner Bros., our market share will go up significantly.”
“So I don’t know, but I think that’s for some economists to decide,” Trump said. “I will be involved in that decision.”
President Trump said he was not making any guarantees about the merger when Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos visited him in the Oval Office last week.
“He’s a great person,” President Trump said of Sarandos. “He’s done one of the greatest things in history, film and otherwise. And he’s got a lot of interesting things going on besides what you’re talking about.”
“But it’s a big market share. There’s no question about it,” Trump said. “That could be a problem.”
A senior Trump administration official told CNBC on Friday that the administration views the deal with “deep skepticism.”
The proposed deal has raised antitrust concerns from lawmakers, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who called it “an anti-monopoly nightmare.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount warned WBD’s lawyers in a recent letter that a sale to Netflix would likely “never go through” due to regulatory challenges in the U.S. and abroad.
Comcast also sought to acquire WBD’s film and streaming assets.
In addition to selling these assets to Paramount, WBD plans to spin out Discovery Global, which includes CNN, TNT Sports, and Discovery Channel.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. With Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff, Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company.
