Paramount is putting together a “majority cash bid” to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, according to The Wall Street Journal. The bid is backed by David Ellison, the founder of Skydance Media who recently became CEO of Paramount, and his dad Larry Ellison, the Donald Trump advisor and tech entrepreneur who recently became the richest man in the world. Though the Ellisons haven’t formally made a bid, WSJ suggests they’re trying to get in the door before WBD splits into two companies, making a play for the movie studio, cable networks, and traditional television assets.
This is not the first time a merger between the two historic studios has been suggested. Heads of both studios met to discuss the possibility in December 2023, but the talks fizzled by February 2024. While Paramount moved on with Skydance, the debt-riddled WBD ultimately decided to split into two companies. Per WSJ, by making a huge offer for the whole company Paramount angles to preempt competitors like Amazon and Apple from buying up WBD’s used parts after the split. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. Discovery stock jumped 36 percent following the news of Paramount’s interest.
A deal of this magnitude that consolidates two of the last remaining major Hollywood studios would almost certainly face regulatory scrutiny… at least, it would in previous years. In our current era, greasing the right palms seems to get anything done. Paramount has seemingly followed this playbook by succumbing to the Trump admin’s whims, particularly in regards to CBS News. And in the wake of Paramount signaling its allyship to conservatives, Larry Ellison coincidentally rose to the top of the list of global billionaires. Owning and operating a Trump-friendly entertainment conglomerate is a powerful position in politics, media, and business right now. Imagine how much more powerful that position would become with two powerful legacy studios under one banner.
