Netflix shares slipped more than 1 percent Tuesday as Wall Street focused less on binge-worthy earnings and more on boardroom brinkmanship.
The stock fell after Warner Bros. Discovery’s board approved Netflix’s amended USD27.75-per-share all-cash bid for its studios and HBO Max streaming business.
Warner Bros. Discovery shares dropped 1.2 percent, while rival suitor Paramount Skydance—attempting a hostile run at WBD—fell 2.1 percent.
The dip came even as Netflix reminded investors why it still sets the pace in streaming, and increasingly, beyond it.
Reporting after the close, Netflix delivered 18 percent year-over-year revenue growth and another surge in subscribers, as it stretches its ambitions from scripted hits to live sports, theaters and advertising.
Revenue for the October-to-December quarter rose to USD 12.1 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of USD11.97 billion, according to LSEG. Global subscribers now top 325 million—enough households to make Netflix a small country with better programming.
Guidance, however, kept champagne corks in check. Netflix forecast full-year 2026 revenue of USD50.7 billion to USD51.7 billion. The range broadly matched expectations but came in a hair light at the low end versus Wall Street’s USD50.98 billion view.
Viewers, meanwhile, kept watching. Nielsen said Netflix’s monthly viewership jumped 10 percent in December, powered by the final season of Stranger Things, which racked up 15 billion viewing minutes.
Netflix also flexed its live ambitions by streaming two National Football League games on Christmas Day and rolling out a third installment of the Knives Outfranchise.
Netflix confirmed it has shifted its Warner Bros. and HBO bid to all cash, turning the streaming wars into something closer to a heavyweight cage match—no remotes required.
