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Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

(www.cnbc.com)
366 points gniting | 4 comments | 08 Dec 25 14:16 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

Previously: Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46160315 (1333 comments)
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indigodaddy ◴[08 Dec 25 15:17 UTC] No.46193176[source]▶
Does WB have to pay the breakup fee to Netflix if a Paramount hostile takeover succeeds?
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raw_anon_1111 ◴[08 Dec 25 16:27 UTC] No.46194238[source]▶
This has nothing to do with the Netflix bid.

Warner bros is being divided into the cable TV stations + discover channel stations and the movie studio and the backlog is separate.

Netflix wants the movie studio + tv back catalog

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hinkley ◴[08 Dec 25 19:43 UTC] No.46196672[source]▶
Because WB owns what is left of Newline, that would include LotR and The Hobbit.
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bsimpson ◴[08 Dec 25 20:20 UTC] No.46197108[source]▶
"What's left"?

New Line has been part of Warner since they merged with TBS in the mid 90s.

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1. hinkley ◴[08 Dec 25 22:24 UTC] No.46198469[source]▶
No, Newline was its own division of WB, but during the financial bubble bursting, and shortly after Golden Compass lost $100M they gutted it and drastically reduced their scope of operations. It's still technically its own division but now it's more of a sock puppet.

The Hobbit for instance is a WB production, not Newline.

Apparently sometime shortly before they got the axe they paid Susanna Clarke a 7 figure sum to option Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I don't know a whole lot about options but 7 figures sounds like about 8-16x what people usually do especially for a 3 year old book by an unknown author. IIRC, that's more than Andy Weir got for The Martian. And more than Lev Grossman is worth today, and he got five seasons out of three books.

That option expired unused and BBC One and Cuba Pictures made it into a very good miniseries. Does feel a bit like a pattern of financial exuberence.

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2. ternus ◴[08 Dec 25 22:59 UTC] No.46198855[source]▶
The BBC Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell miniseries is excellent. One of those times (others might include the original LOTR films and early Game of Thrones) where a genre adaptation wildly exceeded my expectations.
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3. hinkley ◴[08 Dec 25 23:15 UTC] No.46199020[source]▶
Yeah I'm pretty glad Newline biffed that one since we got this instead.

Also Clarke has a chronic illness, which is preventing her from trying for another book of that caliber. That mountain of cash is probably keeping her very comfortable.

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4. ternus ◴[09 Dec 25 03:30 UTC] No.46200937{3}[source]▶
I'm grateful we got Piranesi, which is one of my favorite books of the last few years. The audiobook is splendid.