Netflix, After Walking Away From Warner Bros. Deal, Will 'Move Forward' With '$2.8 Billion in Our Pocket That We Didn't Have a Few Weeks Ago,' CFO Says

Mar 4, 2026 2:30pm PT Netflix, After Walking Away From Warner Bros. Deal, Will ‘Move Forward’ With ‘$2.8 Billion in Our Pocket That We Didn’t Have a Few Weeks Ago,’ CFO Says By Todd Spangler Plus Icon Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor xpangler Latest Audible Unveils Nonfiction Podcast Slate Incorporating Wondery Productions, Featuring OnlyFans Investigative Series, New Seasons of ‘Dr. Death’ and ‘Over My Dead Body,’ and More 9 hours ago David Zaslav Sells $114 Million Worth of Warner Bros. Discovery Stock After WBD Clinches Paramount Skydance Deal 23 hours ago Amazon Is Shutting Down the Wondery Podcast App and Wondery+ 1 day ago See All Courtesy of Netflix Netflix is no longer contemplating a future that includes Warner Bros., having ceded the heated M&A battle to Paramount Skydance. Netflix CFO Spence Neumann, speaking Wednesday at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, reiterated the company’s position that it bailed out of the bidding for Warner Bros. because Paramount increased its offer price. “The short answer is, it was all about price,” Neumann said. “We said all along this opportunity was a nice-to-have at the right price, not a must-have at any price,” he added, echoing Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos’ previous statement. Netflix, in striking the deal to buy WB’s studios and streaming business in December, was playing “offense, not defense,” Neumann said. According to the CFO, Netflix has a “unique view” into how to value the WBD assets. “We went into it with a point of view on price,” he said. “When it became clear it didn’t make sense for us financially anymore,” the company bowed out. Popular on Variety “Now we move forward, and we move forward with a $2.8 billion in our pocket that we didn’t have a few weeks ago,” said Neumann, referring to the breakup fee it received from Paramount Skydance. On Feb. 26, Netflix abandoned its deal to buy Warner Bros.’s studios and streaming business after David Ellison’s Paramount upped its hostile bid for WBD in its entirety to $31/share — leaving Paramount the winner of a debt-fueled takeover of the media conglomerate. Paramount Skydance paid Netflix a $2.8 billion breakup fee once Warner Bros. Discovery terminated its agreement with Netflix in favor of Paramount’s “superior” offer. Asked if the Warner Bros. bidding war change Netflix’s M&A strategy, Neumann replied, “I know it sounds boring, but it’s really no change.” The company will “continue to stay focused on what are those opportunities” to accelerate the growth of the business, he said. Neumann said Netflix, by the end of the bidding process for Warner Bros., had “a stronger belief” that “we would have been great stewards” for those assets. And, he insisted, Netflix had high confidence that it had a “clear path” to regulatory approval. “At the end of the day, we were going to be disciplined,” Neumann said. In 2026, Netflix plans to boost its total cash content spending to around $20 billion, up 10% from last year. It is forecasting revenue of $50.7 billion-$51.7 billion, which would be an increase of 12%-14% year over year, and projected 31.5% operating margin in 2026. The streaming heavyweight said it had more than 325 million subscribers worldwide as of the end of 2025, up from 301.2 million a year prior. The expected 10% increase in Netflix’s content spending this year is in line with its expected revenue growth, Neumann said. “It’s really no change in our approach,” he said. “We really want to be that starting point and destination for professionally produced content for creators around the world.” Jump to Comments BBC Confirms Landmark YouTube Deal, Including New Channels and Winter Olympics Coverage YouTube TV Reveals Pricing, Channels for Lower-Cost Packages Launching This Week YouTube Revenue for Full-Year 2025 Topped $60 Billion, Making Video Platform Bigger Than Netflix Former Banijay Exec Unne Sormunen Named CEO of Finnish Creator Studio Tarinatalli: ‘We See This Moment as an Opportunity’ (EXCLUSIVE) YouTube Now Has the Biggest ‘Sesame Street’ Free Library, With More Than 100 Full Episodes Available to Stream YouTube Goes Down: Platform Experiences Technical Issue With Recommendation System JavaScript is required to load the comments. Loading comments...