Donald Trump said that Netflix must remove Susan Rice from its board of directors or it will “face consequences,” while the streaming platform is in the middle of an extremely tense corporate takeover battle for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
“Netflix should immediately fire the racist and Trump-obsessed person, Susan Rice, or it will bear the consequences. She has no talent or ability — just an ordinary political lackey! HER POWER IS GONE AND WILL NEVER RETURN. How much are they paying her and for what? Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote on the social network Truth Social.
Rice served as national security adviser in Barack Obama’s administration as well as U.S. ambassador to the UN and a White House adviser during Joe Biden’s presidency. She was a member of Netflix’s board from 2018 to 2020. She rejoined in 2023 and is now a member of the nominations and corporate governance committee.
Trump also shared a post by right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, who called Rice and Netflix “anti-American” and accused Rice of “threatening half the country with political revenge because they voted for whoever they wanted in the presidential election.”
Netflix and Paramount Skydance are competing for the studios and streaming business of WBD. Earlier in February, Trump told NBC News that the Department of Justice would conduct proceedings related to the WBD takeover, although he had previously claimed he would personally take part in reviewing the deal. Any takeover of WBD must be approved by federal regulatory bodies.
Netflix’s bid includes the Warner Bros studio and streaming networks, while the rest of the company would be spun off into a separate independent company. That offer values those business segments — including brands such as Warner Bros, New Line Cinema, and HBO Max — at $82.7 billion including debt.
Netflix is offering $27.75 per share in cash, improving its initial offer that included a combination of cash and shares in a new company.
Paramount, on the other hand, says it wants to take control of the entire company, including traditional pay-TV networks, which are considered a declining segment. Its offer values the entire company at $108.4 billion, Index.hr reports.
Paramount is offering $30 per share, entirely in cash, claiming that gives shareholders greater security than Netflix’s plan. It also offered additional concessions, including assuming responsibility for a $2.8 billion termination fee that Warner Bros agreed to pay Netflix if the deal falls through.
Photo: Wikimedia/Gage Skidmore – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic – CC-BY-SA-2.0
