M&A Bankers Face $225 Million Payday as Warner Bros. Deal Heats Up Over Holidays

The investment bankers advising on Warner Bros. Discovery's proposed sale to Netflix won't be taking much time off this holiday season—but they're being compensated handsomely for the sacrifice.

Warner Bros. has committed to paying its three advisory firms up to $225 million in fees, with boutique firms Evercore and Allen & Company positioned to capture the lion's share. Evercore stands to earn $55 million from the transaction, while Allen & Company could collect $85 million, according to deal terms disclosed in December 2025. For these smaller firms, the fees represent an outsized windfall relative to their headcount—Evercore employs just 168 senior managing directors across its entire franchise, while Allen & Company operates with even fewer bankers.

The deal has already demanded an intense pace from advisors. Netflix's bankers held daily morning calls throughout the two months leading up to the announcement, including multiple sessions over Thanksgiving weekend when most finance professionals were off. Now, with Paramount Skydance entering the fray as a competing bidder, all sides are preparing for a protracted holiday work schedule as Warner Bros. weighs its options.

"We see the world speeding up. There's more disruption, there's more dislocation, the cost of standing still is greater today than it's ever been," Paul Taubman, founder and CEO of advisory firm PJT Partners, said in December 2025, capturing the accelerating tempo of dealmaking that's driving the around-the-clock work culture.

The Warner Bros. fees underscore the extraordinary economics of M&A advisory, particularly for boutique firms that can command premium rates while maintaining lean operations. Evercore's recent acquisition of London-based Robey Warshaw illustrates the profitability of this model. That firm employed just five senior managing directors but generated £60 million ($80 million) in annual revenue over the past three years. The highest-paid partner at Robey Warshaw took home £40.5 million in a single year—a compensation level that explains why bankers are willing to work through holidays.

Robey Warshaw, despite its tiny size, advised on seven of the ten largest deals in UK history and worked with over a quarter of FTSE 100 constituents before Evercore acquired it in October 2025. The firm gained notoriety for hiring former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, though he later departed to join OpenAI.

For CFOs watching the Warner Bros. situation unfold, the fee structure offers a window into the premium that companies pay for top-tier M&A advice during complex, competitive processes. The willingness to commit nine-figure advisory fees signals management's view that expert guidance is worth the cost when navigating multi-billion dollar transactions with multiple bidders and intricate regulatory considerations.

Some bankers defend the demanding schedule with sports analogies. "When the NBA players play on Christmas Day, nobody says our holidays are ruined," one banker told the Financial Times. "They say isn't it great you're in the NBA. This is as good as it gets for investment bankers."

As the Warner Bros. deal enters its critical phase over the next few weeks, the armies of advisors on all sides will be working to justify those fees—family gatherings be damned.