{"id":6984,"date":"2026-02-28T01:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6984"},"modified":"2026-02-28T01:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:20:40","slug":"how-the-susan-rice-snafu-cost-netflix-on-home-stretch-of-warner-bros-discovery-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=6984","title":{"rendered":"How the Susan Rice snafu cost Netflix on home stretch of Warner Bros. Discovery deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>There were several reasons why\u00a0streaming giant\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/26\/media\/paramount-skydance-victory-in-warner-bros-discovery-bidding-war-came-after-failed-netflix-exec-visit-to-win-over-white-house\/\">Netflix pulled out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. <\/a>Discovery. You might want to add\u00a0Susan Rice\u00a0to the list.<\/p>\n<p>The former Obama national security adviser, UN ambassador, partisan Democrat and currently a Netflix board member made a splash last week, and not in a good way.<\/p>\n<p>Just as the\u00a0Trump\u00a0administration\u2019s Department of Justice was weighing the antitrust merits of the deal, former Obama national security adviser,\u00a0UN ambassador,\u00a0partisan Democrat and currently\u00a0Netflix board member Rice appeared last week on a podcast hosted by\u00a0Preet Bharara, former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York,\u00a0a longtime Democrat and\u00a0also a frequent critic of the president.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Netflix board member Susan Rice, Obama\u2019s former national security adviser, made a splash last week, and not in a good way. <span class=\"credit\">Gage Skidmore\/ZUMA Press Wire \/ SplashNews.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rice warned that corporations that \u201ctake a knee\u201d\u00a0when dealing with to the Trump administration\u00a0demands\u00a0on various matters\u00a0should expect to be \u201cheld accountable\u201d if Dems return to power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power,\u00a0. . . are going to, you know, play by the old rules, and, you know,\u00a0. . . say, \u2018Oh, never mind. We\u2019ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you\u2019ve violated, all, you know, the laws you\u2019ve skirted.\u2019 I think they\u2019ve got another thing coming,\u201d Rice added.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--columnist inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--single-line \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Charles Gasparino<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Lets just say when the president heard about Rice\u2019s remarks, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/23\/media\/netflix-plans-trumpian-charm-offensive-after-paramount-ups-bid-for-warner-bros-discovery-sources\/\">Trump\u00a0wasn\u2019t too happy<\/a>. He responded on Truth Social, \u201cNetflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences.\u201d\u00a0he posted on\u00a0his\u00a0Truth Social\u00a0account on\u00a0Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The timing was particularly bad because the DOJ was cranking up its inquiry into Netflix\u2019s then nearly completed, $73 billion purchase of WBD\u2019s studio and streamer, including whether its purchase of HBO Max layered on its own streaming service constituted a monopoly that could hurt consumers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Netflix CEO\u00a0Ted Sarandos\u00a0launched a charm offensive with his team of lobbyists that the streaming giant wasn\u2019t looking to price gouge. Above, Sarandos leaving the White House on Thursday. <span class=\"credit\">Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>After Sarandos\u2019 meeting at the White House, Netflix pulled out of the bidding. <span class=\"credit\">REUTERS<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The regulatory heat had become so great that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/25\/media\/netflixs-ted-sarandos-heads-to-dc-to-save-warner-bros-deal-as-antitrust-concerns-intensify\/\">Netflix CEO\u00a0Ted Sarandos\u00a0launched a charm offensive<\/a> with his team of lobbyists that the streaming giant wasn\u2019t looking to price gouge. Sarandos\u00a0himself\u00a0showed up at the White House to\u00a0press the flesh and meet with\u00a0Trump\u00a0AG Pam Bondi\u00a0and members of the DOJ\u2019s antitrust staff\u00a0amid the backdrop of Rice\u2019s threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0A few hours\u00a0after the meeting ended\u00a0later, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/26\/business\/warner-bros-discovery-says-paramounts-31-per-share-bid-is-superior-to-netflix-offer-latest-twist-in-bidding-war\/\">Netflix pulled\u00a0itself\u00a0out of the bidding war<\/a>, handing the company to Paramount Skydance, which recently increased its bid to $80.5 billion.\u00a0In announcing the move,\u00a0Sarandos citied the ever growing price of the deal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter aligncenter inline-module--nypostbusinessunit aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-newsletter\" data-source-unit=\"Inline Newsletter Module On The Money\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__title-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__unsubmitted-title-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>My sources say the DOJ indicated\u00a0to Sarandos\u00a0it had antitrust concerns about the WBD deal despite his argument that competition from YouTube negates them.<\/p>\n<p>But Rice\u2019s remarks didn\u2019t make Sarandos\u2019 job any easier, I am told by people close to the administration. One senior Trump regulatory official\u00a0even\u00a0quipped\u00a0with a laugh\u00a0that Sarandos should have \u201clet Susan Rice tag along\u201d\u00a0to his DOJ sitdown.<\/p>\n<p>A Netflix rep said Sarandos\u2019 meeting was unrelated to Rice and set up two weeks ago. Rice could not be reached for comment<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/27\/media\/how-the-susan-rice-snafu-cost-netflix-on-home-stretch-of-warner-bros-discovery-deal\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There were several reasons why\u00a0streaming giant\u00a0Netflix pulled out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery. You might want to add\u00a0Susan Rice\u00a0to the list. The former&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}