The faces behind Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery-takeover victory

We all know that Paramount Skydance finally won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery.

But who was the real winner in this takeover tussle of the century?

The epic, six-month tango between some of the largest players in media for the owner of the Warner Bros. studio, HBO Max streamer and CNN came to a suitably stunning finish late Thursday — although regular readers of this column probably weren’t too surprised.

Let’s start with Netflix and its co-CEO Ted Sarandos, the architect of the streaming giant’s thwarted bid to snare WBD. Until just days ago, he had remained the official frontrunner. Ted can best be described as both a winner and a loser.

He’s a winner here for the simple reason that he walked away, albeit after lots of drama. That’s because Netflix didn’t need to do this deal. Shares of Netflix soared more than 10% after I posted on my X feed that Netflix was going to cave.

Deals like this aren’t how Netflix became one of the biggest and most successful media com panies ever created. It has grown organically. Yet Sarandos spent months cobbling together mountains of debt while inviting regulatory scrutiny. By dropping out, Sarandos can go back to building his business.