Sanctuary Wealth chief funding strategist Mary Ann Bartels and Michael Lee Technique founder Michael Lee be a part of ‘Mornings with Maria’ to handle antitrust issues over Netflix’s deliberate takeover of Warner Bros.
The Senate is readying for an antitrust listening to following the announcement of a blockbuster, multibillion-dollar merger between Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competitors Coverage and Client Rights, introduced {that a} listening to on the streaming big’s $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio property can be within the works, claiming the deal had “a number of antitrust pink flags.”
“Buckle up for an intense antitrust listening to within the Senate,” Lee stated on X.
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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, introduced an “intense” antitrust listening to after Netflix revealed its multibillion-dollar deal to amass Warner Bros. Discovery. (Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
Netflix introduced the deal on Friday, which would come with buying Warner Bros. Discovery and the corporate’s tv and movie studios and its huge catalog of films and exhibits, together with HBO and the streaming service HBO Max.
The timing of Lee’s listening to has but to be introduced.
Netflix and Warner Bros. logos are seen on this illustration taken Dec. 5, 2025. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters / Reuters)
Lee isn’t the one lawmaker elevating issues in regards to the acquisition. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., known as the deal an “anti-monopoly nightmare.”
“A Netflix-Warner Bros. would create one huge media big with management of near half of the streaming market,” she stated on X. “It might drive you into greater costs, fewer decisions over what and the way you watch and should put American staff in danger.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., throughout a listening to in Washington, Feb. 5, 2025. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg through Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
She additionally charged that below President Donald Trump, “the antitrust evaluation course of has additionally change into a cesspool of political favoritism and corruption,” and he or she demanded that the Division of Justice (DOJ) implement the nation’s anti-monopoly legal guidelines.
Her warning comes after she and Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote in a letter final month to the DOJ that they have been involved about Trump’s “private stance” on different media firms, significantly his private relationship with Paramount Skydance CEO Larry Ellison.
“Some commentators have speculated that Netflix’s bid might face extra skepticism due to the Netflix CEO’s and workers’ observe data of donating to Democrats,” they stated.
President Donald Trump speaks alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio throughout a Cupboard assembly within the Cupboard Room of the White Home in Washington, Dec. 2, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP through Getty Photos / Getty Photos)
“Unbiased enforcement of antitrust and telecommunications legal guidelines is important to advertise market development and financial safety for working households,” they continued. “The DOJ should be certain that evaluation of any potential transaction involving Warner Bros. is grounded within the regulation, not President Trump’s political favoritism.”
Trump might get immediately concerned within the deal, too. The president instructed reporters on Sunday whereas strolling into the Kennedy Heart that the Netflix acquisition “may very well be an issue.”
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He famous that he would talk about the take care of economists and stated, “I’ll be concerned” in what occurs to the acquisition.
“They’ve a really huge market share, and once they have Warner Bros., you already know, that share goes up rather a lot,” he stated.
