Netflix $NFLX ( ▲ 1.67% ) is trending higher on Wednesday as the final season of “Stranger Things” hits the platform at 8 p.m. eastern. The stock is up roughly 2 percent and tracking toward one of its stronger sessions in the past three months. It has only closed above 3 percent a dozen times this year, so today’s move stands out.
Fueling the optimism is a New York Post report that Netflix has stepped up its push to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery $WBD ( ▲ 4.01% ) . The Post says Netflix has argued to WBD’s board that antitrust fears may be overblown because the streamer competes not just with rivals like Disney or Paramount, but with the much broader universe of content platforms that includes YouTube $GOOGL ( ▼ 1.08% ) and TikTok. If that argument sticks, the world’s largest streamer by subscribers could realistically buy the fourth largest.
Not everyone in Hollywood is on board. James Cameron, the director behind “Titanic” and “Avatar,” said this week that a Netflix takeover of WBD “would be a disaster.”
Morgan Stanley analysts have also warned that Netflix’s chase for studio and streaming assets is creating new headaches for investors who are already wary about how aggressively the company is expanding.