Paramount Skydance is reportedly gearing up to make a massive play for Warner Bros Discovery, setting the stage for what could become one of the biggest entertainment shake-ups in years.
Variety broke the story Tuesday, citing sources who say the Ellison-led company has assembled a $71bn offer, a number padded, allegedly, by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds. According to the report, Paramount Skydance would put up about $50bn itself, with the rest coming from the Gulf.
There’s one problem: Paramount Skydance insists that part is “categorically inaccurate.”
The company, now run by David Ellison, son of Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison and a close Trump ally, already had one offer swatted away by Warner Bros Discovery. The Ellisons hold all board voting power at Paramount Skydance, which makes this new bid both personal and very serious.
The wealth funds, if they were involved, would supposedly take tiny minority positions and each receive “an IP, a movie premiere, a movie shoot,” a detail that sounds almost too Hollywood to be real.
Warner Bros Discovery, home to HBO, CNN, TNT, WB Games and the beleaguered DC universe, is staring down a breakup as its once-mighty TV business continues to tank. In October, the company admitted it is evaluating every option: a full sale, a split, or carving off Warner Bros or Discovery Global separately.
Nonbinding first-round bids are due Thursday. Axios reports Paramount is the only company currently weighing a full takeover, and Warner Bros Discovery wants a deal done by year’s end.
The potential sale isn’t only about balance sheets, it’s about politics. Warner Bros Discovery’s news assets, especially CNN, are frequent targets of Trump. Meanwhile, Netflix and Comcast are also reportedly sniffing around, though any Comcast-led move would face regulatory hurdles and Trump’s ire.
He’s spent years lambasting Comcast, saying the company “should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our country.” Comcast owns NBC News and Versant Media, the parent of MS-Now (formerly MSNBC) and CNBC.
Which means: any buyer will be navigating not just market logic, but political lightning.
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