Approval of Netflix Inc.’s offer to buy Warner Bros., or Paramount Skydance’s competing hostile bid, will hinge on the Trump administration in the year ahead, but lobbyists said there’s another power center to hit: Congress.
Lawmakers don’t have a vote on approving mega deals — that’s the purview of federal regulators—but they can lean on the executive branch, hold hearings, and shape the messaging and public narrative around high-profile mergers and acquisitions, lobbyists said. Even with President Donald Trump’s attention on the proposed Netflix-Warner Bros. deal and his strong sway over Washington, strategists said overtures to lawmakers offer a way ...