Sarandos Schleps To White House To Counterpunch Paramount’s Potential Upper Hand In WBD Bid

Ted Sarandos is heading to the White House to salvage Netflix‘s bid for Warner Bros‘ crown jewels.

The streamer co-CEO will sit down Thursday with “several administration officials,” Deadline has confirmed. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is among those Sarandos will be talking too, I’m told.

The latest swing by the Executive Mansion by pitchman supreme Sarandos comes as talks between a hostile takeover protagonist Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery have been extended and the tide seems to be shifting in David Ellison‘s favor.

It is unclear right now, if Donald Trump himself will be meeting with Sarandos. Praising both “fantastic” Sarandos and “good friend” Ellison on different occasions over the pass months as the moves to take over the iconic studio have occurred, the former Apprentice host has expressed concern about Netflix’s potential market share if the streamer and HBO Max become one.

However, when it comes to a chat tomorrow between POTIUS and the exec, “don’t bet against it, Ted knows where power rests,” an insider said of the Executive Mansion visit. “That’s why he’s going to the White House and not (the Department of) Justice.”

The White House had no comment on Sarandos’ dropping by. As has been the case of late as the battle for WBD has become more robust (to put it politely) Netflix did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment.

This is all as POTUS recently raged that Netflix needed to axe “racist, Trump Deranged” Susan Rice from its board. The outburst came as the ex-Obama aide admonished corporations and CEO who bent the knee to the administration over the last year. “This is a business deal,” Sarandos diplomatically responded earlier this week when pressed on Trump’s posting against Rice “It’s not a political deal. This deal is run by the Department of Justice in the U.S. and regulators throughout Europe and around the world,” he said. In noted understatement, Sarandos addd of Trump: “He likes to do a lot of things on social media.”

While perhaps not quite desperate times requiring desperate measures yet, tomorrow’s White House visit is the second time in as many weeks that Sarandos has walked the corridors of DC power. Tghe aim is, of course, to close Netflix’s $83 billion WBD board accepted desire for WB’s streaming and studio assets.

On February 3, the streaming chief submitted to a pounding by MAGA loyalists on Netflix having “the wokest content in the history of the world” and being “propaganda” machine for progressives. The POV from a number of Republicans on the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights appeared to come verbatim from a report by a Heritage Foundation spin-off, as exclusively reported by Deadline.

Politico were first to report Sarandos February 27 White House visit

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