Ted Sarandos (Shutterstock image)
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos Reportedly Met With Trump Ahead of WBD Acquisition
December 7, 2025
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos reportedly met with President Trump just seven days before the streamer pulled the trigger on a binding $82.7 billion second bid for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio assets — which would be the second-largest media merger and acquisition transaction following AT&T’s purchase of Time Warner for $85.4 billion in 2018.
Sarandos met with Trump at the White House on Nov. 24 to discuss why Netflix was a good suitor, a strong investor in the national economy, and is not an industry monopoly, according to Bloomberg News, which cited sources familiar with the meeting.
The meeting is Sarandos’s second face-to-face meeting with Trump following the executive’s trek to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence ahead of the inauguration in January.
Sarandos reportedly highlighted Netflix’s previous subscriber losses in the first three months of 2022, its standing as the No. 5 or No. 6 TV distributor in the country according to Nielsen, and how the deal would only make Netflix roughly YouTube’s size domestically.
Sarandos compared Netflix to Comcast (which owns NBCUniversal) and Paramount Skydance, arguing the WBD acquisition would lead to fewer job cuts and preserve theatrical releases for Warner films.
Trump, who reportedly told Sarandos that the WBD asset auction should go to the highest bidder, told reporters Dec. 7 that he wants to be involved in the regulatory process.
The meeting explains in part why Netflix felt comfortable enough to risk a $5.8 billion break-up fee (paid to WBD) should the deal fail to close.
Regardless, the deal, which is expected to close (or not) in the next 12 to 18 months, faces possible antitrust challenges from lawmakers, in addition to a possible hostile counteroffer by Paramount directly to WBD shareholders.
Paramount, headed by CEO David Ellison, whose father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, has close ties with Trump, has publicly opined that the Netflix deal will not fare well under federal regulatory scrutiny.
Ahead of its $8 billion acquisition by Ellison’s Skydance Media, Paramount paid Trump $16 million to settle an election interference lawsuit filed by the president against CBS News. Ellison also agreed to install an ombudsman to monitor against any alleged political bias at CBS, in addition to hiring former New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss is characterized as preferring ideological diversity over political partisanship.
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