Tech
What to know about Netflix’s landmark acquisition of Warner Bros.
If you thought 2025 couldn’t get any crazier, the streaming world had one more surprise up its sleeve before the year ended.
Netflix, already the largest streaming platform with over 325 million subscribers, took a bold step by acquiring Warner Bros.’ film and television studios, as well as HBO, HBO Max, and other assets. The deal, announced in early December, will bring together some of the most legendary franchises, such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, and DC Comics properties, among others, all under one roof.
The scale of this megadeal has stunned industry observers. Not only is it historic in its size, but it is also predicted to disrupt Hollywood as we know it.
We’re here to break down exactly what’s happening with the Netflix-WBD deal, including the latest developments, what’s at stake, and what could come next.
What has happened so far?
This all started back in October when Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) revealed it was exploring a potential sale after receiving unsolicited interest from several major players in the industry.
For years, WBD has struggled under the weight of billions of dollars in debt, compounded by declining cable viewership and fierce competition from streaming platforms. These financial pressures forced the company to consider major strategic changes, including selling its entertainment assets to one of its rivals.
The bidding process quickly became competitive. Several major players saw the potential in acquiring the media giant. Paramount and Comcast emerged as serious contenders, with Paramount initially viewed as the frontrunner.
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But ultimately, WBD’s board determined that Netflix’s offer was the most attractive, despite Paramount offering approximately $108 billion in cash. Paramount’s bid aimed to acquire the entire company, while Netflix’s offer focused specifically on the film, television, and streaming assets.
Additionally, Netflix recently amended its agreement to an all-cash offer at $27.75 per WBD share, further reassuring investors and paving the way for the deal to proceed. The deal is valued at approximately $82.7 billion.
A fierce bidding war
Even after Netflix emerged as the preferred buyer, tensions with Paramount remained high, as the rival company continued to pursue Warner Bros.’ assets.
Paramount persisted in its attempts to acquire WBD for several months. Still, the board repeatedly rejected its offers, citing concerns about Paramount’s heavy debt load and the increased risk associated with its proposal. The board noted that Paramount’s offer would have left the combined company burdened with $87 billion in debt, a risk they were unwilling to take.
In January, Paramount filed a lawsuit seeking more information about the Netflix deal. A month later, the company sought to sweeten its deal by announcing it would offer a $0.25 per share “ticking fee” to WBD shareholders for each quarter the deal fails to close by December 31, 2026. It also said it would pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee if Netflix backs out.
The company continues to assert that its offer is far superior.
Regulatory hurdles
Given the unprecedented scale and market impact of the deal, regulatory scrutiny is intense and remains a significant obstacle to closing the transaction. Earlier this week, it was reported that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is scheduled to testify before a U.S. Senate committee about the deal, a move that highlights just how seriously lawmakers are taking these concerns.
In November, prominent lawmakers — Senators Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Richard Blumenthal — voiced their concerns to the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, warning that such a massive merger could have serious consequences for consumers and the industry at large. The senators argue that the merger could give the new media giant excessive market power, enabling it to raise prices for consumers and stifle competition.
Should regulators block the acquisition, Netflix would be obligated to pay a $5.8 billion breakup fee. It remains unclear whether Warner Bros. would remain an independent company or revisit previous acquisition proposals.
Concerns within the industry
Reactions from the entertainment industry have been largely negative. The Writers Guild of America has been among the most vocal critics, demanding that the merger be blocked on antitrust grounds.
Additionally, insiders worry that the acquisition will squeeze independent creators and diverse voices out of the spotlight, ultimately narrowing the range of stories that get told. There are also widespread concerns about potential job losses and lower wages.
For creators and theaters, uncertainty remains around release windows. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has stated that all films planned for theatrical release through Warner Bros. will continue as scheduled. However, he also hinted that, over time, release windows may be shortened, with movies coming to streaming platforms sooner than before.
What should subscribers know?
What does all this mean if you’re a Netflix or HBO Max subscriber?
Netflix executives have reassured viewers that HBO’s operations will remain largely unchanged in the near term. At this stage, the company says it’s too early to make any definitive announcements about potential bundles or app integration.
Regarding pricing, Sarandos has stated that no immediate changes will occur during the regulatory approval period. However, subscribers should be aware that Netflix has historically raised subscription prices regularly, so price increases are possible once the acquisition is finalized. Netflix tends to hike its rates every year or two.
When is the deal expected to close?
The Netflix-WBD deal is not yet final.
A WBD stockholder vote is expected around April, with the deal anticipated to close 12 to 18 months after that vote. However, regulatory approvals are still pending, and scrutiny could shape the final outcome.
Stay tuned…
Tech
Primary Ventures raises healthy $625M Fund V to focus on seed investing
Primary Ventures has closed a $625 million Fund V focused on seed investing nationwide, which is a sizable fund for a firm that focuses solely on early-stage investing. It perhaps showcases how the size of early-stage rounds has dramatically increased in the age of AI.
Ben Sun, a co-founder and general partner at Primary Ventures, told TechCrunch the average check size for this fund will range from $5 million to $10 million, and he hopes the firm will invest in 40 to 50 companies over the course of three years. He said the fund will also go as early as pre-seed.
The fund will also continue to spread its investments nationwide. Primary is one of New York’s most well-known venture firms, and at one point, most of its investments were focused in the Big Apple. Sun said the location thesis has changed.
The firm, which overall focuses on early-stage investing, has now done deals in Chicago, Seattle, Virginia, and D.C. “The talent, the founder, and the startups are happening everywhere,” he said. “The potential outcomes are so much bigger than they’ve ever been.”
He sees seed investing as headed toward its own asset class, especially as the quality of talent and their startups continue to rise, paired with tech’s current transformation. Firms are competing, after all, to find the hottest deals. “I think [a fund of this size] allows you to go in and compete and bring more resources to the table to work with the best founders and opportunities.”
Sequoia also recently raised a $200 million seed fund, as did Uncork Capital, which announced a $225 million seed fund earlier last year.
Though Primary calls itself a generalist, Sun said the firm has sector specialists, each with their own focus. He likes consumer, but also has investors focused on vertical AI, fintech, healthcare, enterprise, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. “We pretty much cover probably 80% or 90% of the seed sector activities out there.”
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Fund V has already invested in three companies. Primary previously raised $60 million in Fund I when it launched in 2015, followed by $100 million in Fund II and $150 million in Fund III.
It raised a $275 million fund and an additional $163 million for an opportunity fund. Some of its investments include the AI chip company Etched, the risk management platform Alloy, the women’s networking hub Chief, and the AI marketplace Dandelion Health. It has $1.65 billion in assets under management.
Tech
Spotify hits a record 751M monthly users thanks to Wrapped, new free features
Swedish music streaming giant Spotify saw its user numbers peak last quarter, driven by its year-end “Wrapped” campaign, which rounds up stats and listening highlights for users and new features on its free tier.
The company said it saw a record 38 million new users in the fourth quarter, taking its total to 751 million monthly active users, up 11% from a year earlier. Paying subscribers increased by 10% to 290 million in the quarter.
Spotify said the “Wrapped” campaign resulted in more than 300 million engaged users and 630 million shares on social media in 56 languages.
Revenue came in at €4.53 billion ($5.39 billion), about 7% more than a year earlier, thanks to an 8% increase in subscription revenue. However, the company’s ad-supported business saw revenue dip by 4% to €518 million ($616.6 million). Gross margin, an important metric investors watch for indications of improvements to Spotify’s profitability, improved by 83 basis points to a record high of 33.1% as the company sold more ads for podcasts and music.
The solid performance comes as Spotify’s new co-CEOs Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström take the reins from co-founder Daniel Ek, and they will now oversee a business that has far outgrown what it initially set out to do.
After launching as a music-streaming pure-play, Spotify has expanded its remit to include podcasts, audiobooks, and even physical bookstores. It’s launched music videos within the app as well as video podcasts and has doubled down on its retention strategy by adding social features like group chats and letting users share what they’re listening to. You can even use Spotify to book tickets to concerts, or explore the story behind songs.
The company has also added AI features like an AI DJ and AI-generated playlists, and now lets users exclude tracks from being recommended to help them better tailor what they listen to.
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Profitability has been a big focus for Spotify in recent years, and the company has tried to achieve that by increasing subscription prices in the U.S. and Europe. It’s also added new features to its free, ad-supported tier to attract more people away from rivals like YouTube Music and Amazon Music, letting users search for and choose songs they want to listen to.
The company expects to reach 759 million users and 293 million paying subscribers in the current quarter.
Tech
Former GitHub CEO raises record $60M dev tool seed round at $300M valuation
Former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke has raised the largest-ever seed round for a dev tool startup, according to its lead backer, Felicis. The startup, Entire, has raised $60 million at a $300 million valuation.
Entire offers an open source tool to help developers better manage code written by AI agents.
Entire’s tech has three components. One is a Git-compatible database to unify the AI-produced code. Git is a distributed version control system popular with enterprises and used by open source sites like GitHub and GitLab.
Another component is what it calls “a universal semantic reasoning layer” intended to allow multiple AI agents to work together. The final piece is an AI-native user interface designed with agent-to-human collaboration in mind.
The first product Entire is releasing is an open source tool it calls Checkpoints that automatically pairs every bit of software the agent submits for use in a software project with the context that created it, including prompts and transcripts. The idea is to allow the human developer to review, search, and perhaps even learn from why the AI did what it did.
Entire hopes to help developers better deal with the large volumes of software created by AI coding agents. Popular open source projects are particularly overwhelmed these days with suggested code contributions that may or may not be AI slop — meaning poorly designed and possibly unusable code.
Dohmke explains in the press release: “We are living through an agent boom, and now massive volumes of code are being generated faster than any human could reasonably understand. The truth is, our manual system of software production — from issues, to git repositories, to pull requests, to deployment — was never designed for the era of AI in the first place.”
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Dohmke was CEO of Microsoft’s GitHub for four years, leaving in August 2025 to found a startup, he said in a post on X at the time. During his time there, he oversaw the rise of the popular coding agent GitHub Copilot.
Other investors in the seed round include Madrona, M12, Basis Set, Harry Stebbings, Jerry Yang, and Datadog founder and CEO Olivier Pomel.
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