The market share of a merged Netflix with WB and HBO Max “could be a problem,” according to President Donald Trump, who acknowledged on Sunday that he had met with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the White House to talk about the Warner Bros. Discovery purchase. Speaking to journalists on the red carpet of the Kennedy Center Honors event in Washington, D.C., Trump stated that an evaluation of Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros.’ studios and streaming operations is necessary and added, “I’ll be involved in that decision.”
The government’s evaluation of Netflix’s proposed $83 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. must “go through a process, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Sarandos attended the Oval Office last week, per Trump. The president described the Netflix executive as “a fantastic man. I have a lot of respect for him, but it’s a lot of market share.”
Additionally, Trump described Sarandos as ” a great person… He’s got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you’re talking about, but it is a big market share. There’s no question about it. It could be a problem.”
The president responded, “Well, that’s the question,” when asked if Netflix should be let to acquire the Hollywood behemoth behind “Harry Potter” and HBO Max.
“They have a very big market share, and when they have Warner Bros., you know, that share goes up a lot, so I don’t know,” he remarked. “I’ll be involved in that decision, too. But they have a very big market share.”
Trump stated that Sarandos is a “great person” who has “done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things,” but Sarandos did not guarantee the merger would be authorized during their discussion.