Get out your popcorn — the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery just escalated.
Paramount Global, under CEO David Ellison, has made a hostile, all-cash offer of $108 billion to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent of HBO, Warner Bros. Studios and CNN. That price substantially exceeds the roughly $83 billion agreement Netflix announced last Friday, though Netflix’s deal covered only Warner’s studios and streaming operations; CNN and other cable networks would be spun off if that transaction proceeds.
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and his son David, the founder of Skydance Media, took control of Paramount this summer. Paramount owns CBS, Paramount Pictures and the Paramount+ streaming service. Combining Paramount with Warner would create a major entertainment conglomerate aimed at rivaling Netflix as well as Amazon, Apple and Disney.
The Ellisons began pressing earlier this year with unsolicited bids, prompting Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to put the company up for sale. Paramount says Warner “never engaged meaningfully” with six proposals it submitted. Paramount executives made the accusations on a conference call with investors and reporters.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, speaking to investors Monday, said he expected a counterbid from Paramount and remained untroubled, insisting his company was confident it would complete its agreement. Warner did not comment when asked.
Paramount believed it had leverage because it was offering a cash premium for the entire company rather than a carve-out, and because the Ellisons have cultivated ties in Washington that could matter for regulatory approval. Larry Ellison is a donor and informal adviser to President Trump. David Ellison has made personnel changes at CBS News intended to reduce perceived hostility toward Trump: a conservative former think-tank head was hired as ombudsman, and Bari Weiss, founder of the right-leaning Free Press, was named editor in chief of the news division. Paramount’s prior leadership paid $16 million to settle a lawsuit Trump brought against CBS News.
Even with those connections, approval is not guaranteed. Netflix’s announcement drew immediate bipartisan criticism from some U.S. senators, and Trump has been noncommittal, saying the deal’s effects on market share would be analyzed by economists and that he would be involved in the decision. After Paramount announced its hostile bid, Trump publicly attacked CBS News over a 60 Minutes interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and criticized the Ellisons’ stewardship, saying the new ownership of 60 Minutes “would allow a show like this to air” and claiming the network was “no better than the old ownership.”
Editor’s note: Warner Bros. Discovery is among NPR’s financial supporters.
