Paramount Skydance has accused Netflix of spearheading a \u201cscorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders\u201d against its $110 billion purchase of rival Hollywood studio Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n
In a fiery letter to the Justice Department obtained by NBC News, Paramount Skydance Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim excoriated Netflix for what he called a \u201cpanic-level response\u201d to the merger that illustrates \u201cjust how seriously Netflix takes Paramount as a scaled competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paramount\u2019s letter was sent to the Justice Department on Friday and first reported by Politico.<\/p>\n
In response to a request for comment, a Netflix spokesperson said that \u201cthese claims from Paramount Skydance are absurd.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe walked away from this deal months ago and remain focused on our own business, not theirs,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cUltimately, 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<\/p>\n
In the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount Skydance triumphed over Netflix in late February. WBD shareholders approved the tie-up in late April.<\/p>\n
Trump administration regulators are still reviewing the merger, which would unite two historic Hollywood studios and popular streaming platforms under the same corporate roof, reshaping the American entertainment industry.<\/p>\n
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n Delrahim\u2019s letter came in direct response to a March report sent to the Justice Department by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union whose members, including drivers, work on film and television sets. <\/p>\n The Teamsters argued that Paramount\u2019s acquisition of WBD \u201cposes a direct threat\u201d to workers. The union called on the Justice Department to block the deal unless \u201csubstantial and enforceable safeguards are put in place to increase domestic production and protect jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Delrahim\u2019s letter flatly rejects that argument, with the legal executive writing that \u201corganized labor will directly benefit from the new competitive energy and increased content investment that the combined firm will bring to the entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n The Teamsters did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.<\/p>\n Paramount\u2019s letter accuses Netflix of launching a \u201cbroader proxy war\u201d that includes trying to \u201cpersuade the Teamsters and other stakeholders that Disney\u2019s acquisition of Fox had a negative impact on content production and labor opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrankly,\u201d Delrahim added, \u201cNetflix\u2019s \u2018sky is falling\u2019 narrative departs significantly from the ground-truth reality of what actually happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The Walt Disney Co. took over 21st Century Fox\u2019s entertainment assets in a $71.3 billion deal that closed in 2019.<\/p>\n Delrahim forcefully pushed back on the Teamsters\u2019 contention that Disney\u2019s takeover of the Fox assets hurt workers, writing in part that the Mouse House \u201cunequivocally increased its spending on producing content overall since acquiring Fox.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRespectfully,\u201d Delrahim wrote, \u201cwe do not understand why Netflix and its proxies are still pushing the Disney-Fox merger as a cautionary tale for studio combinations.\u201d<\/p>\n The Teamsters is not the only group that has raised concerns about the Paramount-Warner transaction. In recent months, hundreds of A-list Hollywood actors, producers and directors have advocated against the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThis transaction would further consolidate an already concentrated media landscape, reducing competition at a moment when our industries \u2014 and the audiences we serve \u2014 can least afford it,\u201d more than 1,000 entertainment professionals said in an open letter published in April.<\/p>\n The prospective merger is also facing scrutiny from California Attorney General Rob Bonta, whose office is investigating the deal, and the United Kingdom\u2019s antitrust authority, which formally announced a probe Tuesday. <\/p>\n Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has vowed to \u201chonor the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company.\u201d He has also publicly vowed to release at least 30 feature films a year in movie theaters.<\/p>\n Delrahim became Paramount Skydance\u2019s chief legal officer last fall. He was previously the U.S. assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division during President Donald Trump\u2019s first term in the White House.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Paramount Skydance has accused Netflix of spearheading a \u201cscorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders\u201d against its $110 billion purchase of rival Hollywood studio Warner Bros. Discovery. In a fiery letter to the Justice Department obtained by NBC News, Paramount Skydance Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim excoriated Netflix for what he called…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradertideinsights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}