Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos denies Warner Bros. buyout interest

Netflix (NFLX) has seemingly denied reports that the streaming giant was among the parties expressing "unsolicited" interest in buying Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD).

"We have no interest in owning legacy media networks," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stated. Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Allie Canal outlines the details.

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Video Transcript

00:00 Speaker A

You know what I loved hearing from Netflix, that they do not want to buy, at least they're saying this publicly, a legacy media asset like a Warner Brothers. And I agree with Netflix. Who wants that legacy crap? The systems, the layers of management, the horrible culture. This was an an acquisition for for David Zaslov that just didn't work out and it just it just hasn't.

00:18 Speaker B

No, it's just fallen apart. And look, this is similar to what we've seen in the past. Uh, media has a long history of mergers, of breakups, of acquisitions. And Netflix came out pretty confident in that they don't really need any type of asset right now. And that that doesn't, what Warner Brothers Discovery is doing, doesn't change the competitive landscape for them. Now, I will say they could be interested in the studio side of WBD, getting some of that IP, some of that content under their own umbrella, but they're not going to want the whole company. So that's something to to look for moving forward when it comes to what WBD wants to get from any type of acquisition. There's reporting out there that they've denied three bids from Paramount Global. So it's clear that they're waiting for the right time, the right opportunity, and as David Sazoff says, the the right uh growth value for shareholders, increasing that value for those stakeholders. So, you know, it's going to be an interesting a few months, a few years as we look ahead to the industry. There's a lot more consolidation that needs to be had. But if you're Netflix, you're sitting pretty on top. You have a really strong balance sheet, you have the profitability, and you have various growth levers moving ahead. So that seems to be the sentiment across the street as well that in terms of all the other media companies, Netflix is is up here and the other ones are are really just trying to keep up.

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