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Lina Khans Favorite Law
The potential acquisition of HBO by Netflix highlights the importance of strategic mergers in the entertainment industry, particularly in acquiring valuable intellectual property. For brand strategy, this move emphasizes the need for companies to leverage their content libraries to enhance their market position and consumer engagement, while also being mindful of the implications for pricing and creative freedom.
Feed Me: Lina Khan's favorite law. Plus Netflix buys HBO, TBPN won't become Barstool, and more. Good morning everyone. Last night I went to my friend Krithika Varagur’s birthday party at FishMarket II on Avenue A. In the corner of the bar, a stack of books she was gifted throughout the night grew higher and higher.
I’ll ask her to share the titles with us if they were any good. Today’s letter includes: Lina Khan answers your questions, TBPN has no plans to become Barstool, the stamp store where New York businesses like Colleen Allen and Michael’s are shopping, a holiday party for New York’s top “New York’s top builders and investors,” and Substack wants you to try out livestreaming. BUT FIRST! Teddy Kim on Netflix’s deal to buy Warner Bros. and HBO “I’ll write a longer piece about this but it’s stunning to finally see this happen, 15 years after Jeff Bewkes’ notorious ‘Albanian army’ dig. Netflix has been dying to get its hands on premium IP for years.
You can already find a bunch of HBO shows licensed on Netflix, but if the deal goes through, they’ll acquire one of the best IP libraries in the business: Lord of the Rings films, Harry Potter (with an upcoming TV show), and the DC superhero franchise. The big question is if the deal goes through. You can expect Paramount and the Ellisons to flex their political muscles to block the deal. On the other hand, the $5 billion reverse breakup fee Netflix is committed to pay, on the high end at 7-8% of deal value, suggests they’re pretty confident it’ll go through.
While it’ll be nice to not have to pay for both, you can guarantee the price will go up for a combined Netflix/HBO service. It’s also hard to imagine the deal being good for creatives. Theatrical windows will shorten, consumers will be trained even more to think of movies as streaming products instead of theatrical experiences. The top directors and stars who can afford it will take their business to a studio that will give them the releases that they think their movies will want. Everyone else will take what they can get.” - Teddy Kim 📱 Have a story you think we should look into?
Text the anonymous Feed Me Tip Line: (646) 494-3916 This interview is part of a Feed Me feature called Guest Lecture. In this series, I introduce you all to an expert who I’m curious about, and give paid readers an opportunity to ask them anything they want.
Past guests have included Olivia Nuzzi, Andrew Ross Sorkin, and Kareem Rahma. Today, Lina Khan (who served as the youngest Federal Trade Commission chair ever from 2021 to 2025, and was recently appointed co-chair of Zohran Mamdani’s transition team) answers your questions about Adam Friedland’s furniture, her favorite law, and why private equity roll-ups “deserve an enormous amount of scrutiny.” “Mayor-elect Mamdani and Lina Khan are both known for the ways they engage so personally; Mamdani is everywhere all over the city, and Khan famously conducted extensive listening tours.
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The potential acquisition of HBO by Netflix represents a significant strategic move in the entertainment industry, making it highly relevant for brand strategy professionals, though mergers in this space are not entirely new.