Warner Bros. has an activist investor. Does this threaten the Netflix deal?

Investment company Ancora Holdings has acquired a stake in Warner Bros. Discovery and said it intends to oppose the sale of studios and streaming assets to Netflix, Reuters writes. The activist investment company considers Paramount Skydance's offer more favorable and less risky from the point of view of regulators.

Ancora's stake in Warner Bros. Reuters, The Wall Street Journal and Business Wire estimate Ancora's stake in Warner Bros. at nearly $200 million. The total assets under Ancora's management amount to $11 billion.

Ancora said it intends to vote against the Netflix deal at the Warner Bros. shareholder meeting. The meeting is expected to be held by April - unless the Warner Bros. board's recommendation to buy part of the Netflix studio is changed. The Warner Bros. board has not properly negotiated with Paramount on an alternative proposal to buy the entire company, including the cable assets of CNN and TNT, Ancora said, noting that the investment firm believes Paramount's offer could qualify as "more favorable."

In addition, Ancora supported the argument that the structure of the Netflix deal gives shareholders an uncertain amount of cash depending on the future value of the allocated cable assets, Reuters adds. Separately, Ancora is focusing on the antitrust risks of the Netflix and Warner Bros. deal. According to the activist investment firm, a merger between Warner Bros. and the streaming giant could lead to excessive concentration in the market.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing sources, the fund sent a letter to Warner CEO David Zaslav on February 10, warning that it may launch its own fight for control of the company if the board of directors does not get shareholders the best terms for the Paramount deal. The newspaper's sources also said Ancora plans to continue to build its stake in Warner and expects that even a small position will allow it to consolidate around it other investors unhappy with the Netflix deal.

Barron's notes that Ancora's $200 million position looks insignificant against Warner's market capitalization of about $68.9 billion. Reuters writes that Ancora's stake in Warner Bros. is less than 1% of its total outstanding shares.

Under the terms of the deal with Warner Bros. Netflix is offering the company $27.75 per share, which values the studio's business at $82.7 billion including debt. Paramount, in turn, is offering $30 per share. On Tuesday, February 10, Paramount once again improved its terms: promised to pay shareholders an additional $650 million in cash for each quarter if the deal is not concluded by the end of 2026, as well as to cover the penalty of $2.8 billion, which Warner Bros. will have to pay Netflix in case of rejection of the deal.

Also, the U.S. Department of Justice, according to Reuters, is looking into possible anticompetitive practices as part of its review of a possible Netflix and Warner Bros. deal. Paramount, for its part, says its proposal has a clearer path to regulatory approval and is already engaging with antitrust authorities in the U.S., EU and UK, Reuters notes.

Ancora has a track record of pushing deals both publicly and "behind the scenes," The Wall Street Journal writes. In 2024, the investment firm formed a major stake in Norfolk Southern and subsequently won seats on the railroad operator's board of directors before the company agreed to a nearly $72 billion takeover by Union Pacific in the summer of 2025. Ancora also tried to get U.S. Steel shareholders to reject the sale of the company to Japan's Nippon Steel, but later gave up the fight and the deal eventually went through, the Wall Street Journal reported. In addition, in November 2025, the investment firm privately pressured bubble wrap maker Sealed Air in an attempt to force the company's management to sell the business. Sealed Air eventually agreed to be acquired by CD&R last November, Reuters wrote.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor