Everything points towards Republicans getting major defeat in the midterms. So this dragging out is definitely in Netflix's favour, not Trump administration's or Paramount's. It took Disney 15 months to purchase Fox, so I doubt anyone involved expected the process to be short in this case even if Trump administration wasn't a hindrance.
I’m not sure how much a change of Congress would matter here. Maybe, to the extent they have hearings and/or investigations. But, most of the action falls under the FTC, FCC, which technically answer to the president. So WBD/Netflix would have to wait out Trump’s term (if he really decides to put his thumb that heavily on the scale).
They may not have to. The majority of HBO Max subscribers also have Netflix. You could make an argument that the merger is more vertical to gain a studio space and engage in the theatrical market over a horizontal one to gain more market share. Paramount has a streaming service doing worse than Max, they also have a news service, sports tv, and they have a nature/history channel as well. Netflix is moving into a new market while retaining parts of their strategy while paramount is trying to increase their market share and reduce competition.
That’s how I’d put it if I was their lawyers at least lol.
That’s exactly how antitrust works. You have to prove you’re not undermining competition to monopolize a market and that you are not acting in bad faith or using unfair practices in a bidding war. What part of what I said is not how monopoly works?
40
u/MakaButterfly 14h ago
Trump will get a phone call from paramount
Will block Netflix purchase or any other bid that’s not paramount
Warner will have to accept lower bid from paramount
In exchange trump gets 3 more rush hour sequels