Netflix put on a nice show Tuesday when
it delivered fourth-quarter financial results: The streaming giant beat EPS expectations by a penny, and said it now has 325 million paid subscribers and a worldwide total audience nearing 1 billion. For 2026, Netflix forecast revenue would be between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion—right on target with Wall Street expectations.
Investors were more focused on another storyline however: the company's plans to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in an all-cash deal that values the company at $83 billion. Netflix's stock, which was already down 15% since it announced the deal in early December, sank another 4.9% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters did their best to present their case for the deal, using a What's-good-for-Netflix-is-good-for-America pitch.
“This is going to allow us to significantly expand our production capacity in the U.S. and to keep investing in original content in the long term, which means more opportunities for creative talent and more jobs,” Sarandos said.
Investors weren't swayed by the pitch. But the pitch may have been aimed at federal officials (and a certain resident of Pennsylvania Avenue), who will need to bless the deal.
