Weekly Roundup: Netflix to Buy WB Discovery, Microsoft Slides, Salesforce Rallies

On this episode of Stock Movers, we look at some of the biggest movers of the week:

- Netflix (NFLX) agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), marking a seismic shift in the entertainment business as a Silicon Valley-bred streaming giant tries to swallow one of Hollywood’s oldest and most revered studios. The acquisition, which confirmed a Bloomberg report Thursday, presents a strategic pivot for Netflix, which has never made a deal of this scope in its 28-year history. With the purchase, Netflix becomes owner of the HBO network, along with its library of hit shows like The Sopranos and The White Lotus. Warner Bros. assets also include its sprawling studios in Burbank, California, along with a vast film and TV archive that includes Harry Potter and Friends. Netflix shares were down 3.5% Friday afternoon in New York. They have declined about 17% since the streaming leader emerged as an interested party in October. Some investors and analysts have interpreted this deal to mean Netflix was worried it couldn’t expand its current business, a theory co-CEO Greg Peters dismissed. Warner Bros. stock was up about 5.2% midday in New York. It has almost doubled since reports of deal talks with Paramount emerged in September.

- Microsoft (MSFT) shares slid on Wednesday after the Information reported that the software maker has lowered expectations for getting business customers to spend money on the cloud unit’s marketplace for artificial intelligence models and agents. The stock fell as much as 3% in New York on Wednesday, but pared the drop as analysts and investors digested the Information report.

- Salesforce (CRM) gave an outlook for revenue in the current period on Wednesday that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting the software company is persuading customers to buy its AI tools. The revenue forecast includes 3 percentage points of growth from Informatica, a data integration software maker that Salesforce acquired last month in an $8 billion deal. The outlook for current remaining performance obligations includes 4 percentage points from Informatica. The shares gained about 5% in extended trading after closing at $238.72 in New York. The stock has dropped 29% this year through Wednesday’s close as investors have grown concerned about AI disrupting incumbent application software makers. It continued to rally through trading on Friday.

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