Paramount Skydance is looking to pay cash to buy Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount Skydance is looking to pay cash to buy Warner Bros. Discovery
The ink is barely dry on the merger that combined Paramount Global and Skydance Media, but the newly formed company is already looking for its next acquisition.
Paramount Skydance isn’t wasting a second in trying to reshape the American media landscape. The merger of Skydance and Paramount just closed a month ago, but the new Paramount is already acquisition-minded. According to an exclusive report from the Wall Street Journal, Paramount is preparing to make an nearly all-cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that would constitute a tectonic shift in the media business.
Key Details:
- Ellison incoming: Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority cash bid for WBD, backed by the Ellison family.
- Put it back together: The bid will be for the entire company, including streaming and cable components.
- Breeze through regulators?: Paramount has a suddenly strong relationship with the Trump administration that could help seal the deal.
Per WSJ’s Jessica Toonkel, Paramount Skydance is putting together a majority cash bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The bid is backed by the Ellison family; new Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison’s father Larry was named the richest person in the world earlier this week, with a net worth of almost $400 billion as of the time of this writing.
The bid is intended to acquire the entirety of WBD’s assets, not a spun-off portion of the company. WBD had announced its plans to separate its studio and streaming businesses from its cable channels earlier this summer, but those plans may be put on hold permanently if the Paramount deal goes through.
Does the deal have a chance to get past regulators? There could be major antitrust concerns with the combination of so many cable channels and so much intellectual property coming under the control of one company; however, there are no laws that would prevent it. Since WBD does not have a broadcast channel in its portfolio, the deal would not run afoul of laws that prevent any media outlet from owning more than one broadcast TV channel.
After settling a lawsuit with President Trump recently, Paramount suddenly found a much easier path toward FCC approval of its merger with Skydance. There could be enough residual goodwill to get the WBD deal done too, especially since Larry Ellison is a vocal friend and supporter of Trump.
The tables have turned quite dramatically since 2023, when rumors of WBD and Paramount combining first emerged. At that time, however, discussions were centered on a deal that would see WBD acquire Paramount, not the other way around. The new financial strength of Paramount after its acquisition by the wealthy Ellison family has apparently given it a big leg up in the months since those initial reports.
If Paramount and WBD were to merge, the resulting company would control 100% of media rights for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament under existing contracts. It would also have the NFL, plenty of college sports, and IP like the Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, DC comics, and Star Trek franchises. It would control both the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services, as well as channels like CBS, Comedy Central, Food Network, HGTV, MTV, Nickelodeon, TNT, and many more.
The ink is barely dry in Paramount’s merger with Skydance, but the new company wants to take the next step forward in a big way.
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