Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos personally lobbied President Trump last month about the streaming giant's $82.7 billion Warner Bros acquisition, according to new reports from Bloomberg and The Hollywood Reporter. The November meeting reveals how tech executives are already working Trump's inner circle to secure regulatory approval for massive deals that could reshape entire industries.
The streaming wars just got a lot more political. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos didn't leave his company's biggest acquisition to chance - he went straight to the top, meeting with President Trump in November to discuss the $82.7 billion Warner Bros deal that could fundamentally reshape Hollywood's power structure.
According to Bloomberg's reporting, Trump told Sarandos that Warner Bros should "sell to the highest bidder," and the Netflix executive walked away convinced the president wouldn't immediately oppose the acquisition. That's a massive win for Netflix in what many expected would be an uphill regulatory battle.
The revelation completely flips the script on who has the inside track with the Trump administration. Industry insiders had assumed Paramount CEO David Ellison held all the cards, given his family's long-standing connections to Trump's inner circle. Ellison's father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, has been a vocal Trump supporter and major donor. But Sarandos' direct approach shows how quickly the landscape can shift when billions are on the line.
Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav apparently never saw it coming. Bloomberg reports that Zaslav was "reluctant to sell the company and surprised when Paramount began to explore an acquisition." The timing caught him off guard - he'd expected any serious buyer to wait until Warner completed its planned split of movie and streaming operations from its cable networks.
But Paramount jumped first, triggering a bidding war that forced Warner Bros to consider other offers. That opened the door for Netflix to swoop in with its record-breaking $82.7 billion bid, the largest acquisition in entertainment history. The deal would combine Netflix's 260 million global subscribers with Warner's iconic franchises like Batman, Harry Potter, and HBO.
