from the just-a-little-something-to-wet-my-beak dept

Last week Netflix announced a $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers, after elbowing out rival acquisition bids (for now) by Comcast/NBC and Paramount/CBS. But as we noted then, the deal still needs regulatory approval from Trump, who has already stated several times that he’d prefer it if his billionaire bestie new owner of CBS, Larry Ellison, comes away victorious. And the Ellison family, via Paramount (with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Saudi money), have made a hostile takeover bid.

Over the weekend, Trump was again asked about the deal, and again hinted at the fact that he’ll be the one who decides who can buy Warner Brothers (this is, in case it’s not clear, not how regulatory autonomy is supposed to work):

“speaking with reporters on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honors event in Washington, D.C., said Netflix’s deal to acquire Warner Bros. studios and streaming business will require a review, and said, “I’ll be involved in that decision.”

Despite the fact the Paramount hostile takeover bid features his own son in law, the Saudis, and a billionaire bestie who shares his authoritarian policies, Trump and right wing media outlets like the Wall Street Journal are desperately trying to pretend this is going to be a neutral process:

That’s…not even a true statement. Trump has openly stated he’d prefer Paramount to win the bidding process, and that was* before his own son in law was involved*. Ellison has already met with Trump, at least once, to promise him he’d fire whichever CNN hosts Donald doesn’t like. If this comes down to federal approval, it’s clear which side Trump’s going to come down on.

Hoping to compete, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has already begun the shameless process of adequately kissing Trump’s ass, but it’s not entirely clear it’s going to work:

“According to Trump, Sarandos visited the Oval Office last week. The Netflix exec is “a fantastic man,” the president said. “I have a lot of respect for him, but it’s a lot of market share.”

Trump also said of Sarandos, “He’s a great person… He’s got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you’re talking about, but it is a big market share. There’s no question about it. It could be a problem.”

This cronyism and corruption is once again, with the press’ help, going to be hidden beneath a veneer of fake populist antitrust. You might remember that last year the lie was pushed repeatedly that the “populist” Trump administration really cared about unchecked market power, and (alongside authoritarians JD Vance and Josh Hawley) was to be taken seriously on antitrust reform and “reining in big tech.”

But despite the claims by useful idiots like Matt Stoller, that was never true; the administration has caused generational harm to consumer protection and corporate oversight. And the efforts to “rein in big tech” wound up with tech executives putting their full support behind an authoritarian government and behaving worse than ever.

Of course, here the only thing Trump is interested in is in helping his billionaire ally further dominate media. And if he can’t have that, he’ll be satisfied with Netflix executives debasing themselves repeatedly if they want DOJ approval of the pending merger. Trump’s FCC and DOJ have repeatedly violated the law and abused the merger process to curry favor from feckless companies (see: Verizon, CBS).

Even before the deal was finalized, Paramount and/or the Trump administration had begun seeding complaints in Republican-friendly media that the bidding process was unfair to Larry Ellison and CBS/Paramount, and that the Trump administration is concerned about the antitrust impact of a Netflix Warner Brothers combination.

As noted, Paramount is now angling to appeal directly to investors with a a hostile takeover bid. With Netflix’s deep pockets and a $5.8 billion breakup fee on the line, that fight is certain to be an extended one, even with the personal help of Trump and his corrupted courts. It could, potentially, even outlast the Trump administration itself.

While the Netflix acquisition likely will be bad for markets or consumers (consolidation typically is), the alternatives (Comcast and Larry Ellison) would be significantly worse, with likely significantly more layoffs. Still, there’s absolutely nothing the Trump administration does that’s in bad faith, and the administration’s sudden concern with “market power” are as hollow as a dollars store chocolate Easter bunny.

That, of course, won’t be detailed by the consolidated media outlets covering this deal journalistically, who’ll play along with Trump happily if it means getting their own shitty mergers approved.

Filed Under: consolidation, corruption, donald trump, hostile takeover, larry ellison, media, mergers, streaming, video Companies: netflix, paramount, skydance, warner bros. discovery