Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos Heads To White House To Discuss Susan Rice

On Thursday, Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos is reportedly headed to the White House to speak with Trump Administration officials about the future of Netflix board member Susan Rice, whom the president is demanding be replaced following comments she recently made on a podcast.

Last week, Rice appeared on the podcast “Stay Tuned For Preet.” During the conversation, Rice warned there will be consequences for companies that have bent to the will of President Trump as the political tide turns against him and his policies.

“For those that decided that they would act in their perceived very narrow self interest, which I would underscore as very short-term self-interest, and take a knee to Trump, I think they are now starting to realize, ‘wait a minute, this is not popular. Trump is not popular,” Rice said.

Those comments prompted a number of complaints from prominent conservative media figures as well as this message from the Truth Social account of President Trump:

“Netflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences. She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack! How much is she being paid, and for what??? Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.”

According to a report in Politico, Sarandos will be meeting with Administration officials to discuss the future of Rice as well as the status of Netflix’s bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Anti-trust approval by federal regulators is necessary before the bid can close, assuming that Paramount Skydance is unsuccessful in its efforts to wrestle the company away from Netflix.

While technically Donald Trump has no direct role in the anti-trust investigation, it’s unlikely any merger could take place without his tacit approval.

For his part, Sarandos continues to downplay the Rice story, telling the BBC over the weekend “This is a business deal. It’s not a political deal….He [Trump] likes to do a lot of things on social media.”

It’s not clear if Thursday’s White House meeting will include Donald Trump, although his presence will loom large over the discussions.

Given that Netflix has business across the globe, the company can’t be seen as bending to complaints from any politician, but it’s not clear what would happen if the Administration made Rice’s removal a necessary move in order to win anti-trust approval for the deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.

As all this plays out in Washington, the Warner Bros. Discovery board is still considering a last-minute proposal from Paramount Skydance that was made earlier this week. If the board decides that offer is materially superior to the one made by Netflix, then Netflix would have four days to increase its offer to either match or surpass the Paramount proposal.

If that happens, the deal will move forward, subject to anti-trust approval from both the U.S. and several European regulators. That process could take anywhere from a few months to several years, depending on the level of pushback from various governmental parties.

Assuming the Netflix offer is eventually completed, the parts of Warner Bros. Discovery not acquired by Netflix – primarily the cable television channels in the United States as well as the company’s extensive international assets – would be spun-off into a new, independent company.