Paramount Skydance s top lawyer claims Netflix is so worried about the prospect of competing with a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery that the streaming company is going all-out to try to  poison regulators and other stakeholders  against the pending $111 billion deal.

Netflix clinched a deal to buy Warner Bros.'s streaming and studios businesses in late 2025 before backing out of the bidding in February after Paramount upped its takeout offer for all of WBD.

Makan Delrahim, Paramount's chief legal officer, has alleged that Netflix is lobbying hard against Paramount's proposed Warner Bros. Discovery deal. In a June 5 letter to lawyers in the DOJ's Antitrust Division, Delrahim wrote that  Netflix's panic-level response and scorched-earth campaign to try and poison regulators and other stakeholders against the Transaction shows just how seriously Netflix takes Paramount as a scaled competitor. 

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Delrahim was writing in response to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' white paper submitted to the Justice Department in March, in which the union urged the agency to block the Paramount-WBD merger unless Paramount agreed to  substantial and enforceable safeguards  against job cuts and supporting increased U.S. production.

Apparently, Netflix's alleged  scorched-earth  tactics here revolve around comparing the Paramount-WBD merger to Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019 - and warning that big studio mergers lead to lower content output and reduced competition in the industry.

In his letter, Delrahim wrote,  We understand that as part of its broader proxy war against the Transaction, Netflix has tried to persuade the Teamsters and other stakeholders that Disney's acquisition of Fox had a negative impact on content production and labor opportunities. Frankly, Netflix's  sky is falling' narrative departs significantly from the ground-truth reality of what actually happened.  Delrahim's letter, addressed to DOJ Antitrust attorneys Jared A. Hughes and A. Maya Khan, was first reported by Politico.

Variety has reached out to Netflix for comment.



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