Acquisitions and mergers have change into the norm within the leisure business over the previous a number of years. After Skydance Media acquired Paramount earlier this yr, a battle to accumulate Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns HBO and HBO Max, started in late 2025. Now that Netflix has bowed out of the competitors, does this imply HBO Max subscribers ought to count on a rise in costs quickly?
Under, Hollywood Life unpacks how the Warner Bros. merger with Paramount might impression HBO Max subscribers.
Did Netflix Purchase Warner Bros?
Netflix introduced its cope with Warner Bros. to accumulate the latter in a December 5, 2025, information launch. Netflix’s Co-CEO, Greg Petersstated the Warner Bros. buy “will enhance (Netflix’s) providing and speed up our enterprise for many years to come back.”
“Warner Bros. has helped outline leisure for greater than a century and continues to take action with phenomenal artistic executives and manufacturing capabilities,” Peters added. “With our international attain and confirmed enterprise mannequin, we will introduce a broader viewers to the worlds they create—giving our members extra choices, attracting extra followers to our best-in-class streaming service, strengthening all the leisure business and creating extra worth for shareholders.”
Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos famous, “Collectively, we may give audiences extra of what they love and assist outline the subsequent century of storytelling.”
Nonetheless, Paramount Skydance finally beat out Netflix after Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison commenced a hostile takeover.
Did Paramount Purchase Warner Bros?
Sure, based on Paramount Skydance, the corporate beat Netflix in February 2026 to accumulate Warner Bros. On February 27, 2026, the corporate launched a information launch asserting that it “entered right into a definitive merger settlement underneath which Paramount will purchase WBD, forming a premier international media and leisure firm centered on increasing client alternative and empowering artistic expertise worldwide.”
Who Owns HBO & HBO Max?
Warner Bros. Discovery presently owns HBO and HBO Max.
Will My HBO Subscription Go Up in Worth Now?
As of now, HBO Max remains to be the identical value, beginning at $10.99 per thirty days with adverts.
Is HBO Max Going Away?
Netflix was not planning to take away HBO or HBO Max. As a substitute, the streaming large stated in its information launch, “By including the deep movie and TV libraries and HBO and HBO Max programming, Netflix members may have much more high-quality titles from which to decide on.”
Nonetheless, now that Paramount is taking up, the corporate stated it plans to mix Paramount+ with Pluto and HBO.