The iconic Warner Studios water tower, built in 1927, in Burbank, California, November 25, 2025. JILL CONNELLY/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
Netflix recently featured a docuseries on the titans who built Hollywood, recounting the saga of silent film pioneers from 1900 to the 1929 crash. It covered all the legendary figures, Central European Jewish immigrants and geniuses of the seventh art: the Warner brothers, William Fox, Adolph Zukor (Paramount), Carl Laemmle (Universal), Louis Burt Mayer (MGM), along with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin (United Artists). It might be time for a new series telling how, after resisting for a century, those titans eventually fell one by one, prey to streaming giants, led by the most powerful of them all, Netflix.
The group, founded in 1997 as a DVD-by-mail service, announced on Friday, December 5, that it was acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery for $83 billion (including $71 billion in debt). Warner shareholders will receive $23.30 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix shares for each of their shares. If regulators grant approval, the newly merged company would become the world's undisputed leader in cinema and subscription streaming, with the streaming service HBO Max in its portfolio. This marks Netflix's largest acquisition to date.
