- Warner Bros. Discovery’s board declared Paramount Skydance’s revised $31-per-share all-cash bid a “superior proposal” over Netflix’s existing merger agreement, triggering a match window that Netflix ultimately declined.
- Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters stated the deal was “no longer financially attractive” at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s offer, effectively ending a months-long bidding war.
- Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison — son of Trump ally and Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison — sweetened its offer multiple times, ultimately raising its bid 63% from its original September proposal to secure the deal.
- A combined Paramount-WBD entity would merge HBO Max with Paramount+, unite Warner Bros. and Paramount Skydance Studios, and place both CNN and CBS News under a single ownership structure.
- WBD shareholders emerged as the clear financial winners, with the stock surging 78% during the bidding war, while Paramount and Netflix shares fell 36% and 30% respectively.
- The deal includes a $7 billion regulatory termination fee and Paramount’s agreement to absorb WBD’s $2.8 billion Netflix breakup fee, giving WBD shareholders significant financial protection.
- Political undertones were prominent throughout the process — David Ellison attended Trump’s State of the Union as a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham while Netflix’s Ted Sarandos was seen arriving at the White House on the same day Netflix declined to match the bid.
- The deal still faces a WBD shareholder vote scheduled for March 20 and significant regulatory review before it can be finalized.
Netflix just walked away from what was supposed to be one of the defining media deals of the decade, and the company that won is backed by a family with deep ties to President Donald Trump. That alone makes Thursday’s announcement worth paying close attention to.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board formally declared that Paramount Skydance’s revised all-cash bid of $31 per share constitutes a “superior proposal” to the existing Netflix merger agreement, triggering a four-day window for Netflix to counter. Netflix declined. Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement, “The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”
With those words, a months-long bidding war effectively ended. Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, now stands as the sole remaining bidder for one of the most storied collections of media assets in American history — HBO, Warner Bros. Entertainment, DC Comics and Studios, CNN, and more.
How the Deal Got Here
The road to Thursday’s announcement was anything but straightforward. Warner Bros. Discovery had been exploring a separation of its streaming and studio businesses from its cable networks since June 2025. A bidding war then ensued between Paramount Skydance, Netflix, and Comcast during November 2025, and by early December, Netflix was seen as the frontrunner. The Netflix deal, announced December 4, 2025, valued WBD’s streaming and studios division at roughly $82.7 billion.
Paramount refused to accept that outcome. Three days after the Netflix deal was announced, Paramount Skydance submitted a rival all-cash bid to acquire the entirety of WBD for $108.4 billion at $30 per share, backed by the Ellison family, Redbird Capital, and the sovereign wealth funds of three Middle Eastern countries. WBD’s board repeatedly rebuffed the offer, publicly backing the Netflix transaction. Paramount responded by escalating to a hostile takeover attempt and filing litigation in Delaware seeking more information about WBD’s deal process.
The situation shifted in mid-February. Netflix granted WBD a limited seven-day waiver to reopen negotiations with Paramount, and Paramount raised its offer to $31 per share, up from $30, in a proposal that could “reasonably be expected” to top the Netflix deal. The revised bid also included a $7 billion regulatory termination fee — essentially a massive insurance policy for WBD shareholders in the event antitrust regulators block the transaction — along with Paramount’s commitment to absorb the $2.8 billion breakup fee WBD would owe Netflix to exit that agreement.
The Ellison Factor
No honest accounting of this deal can ignore the political dimensions. David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle and one of President Trump’s most prominent supporters in the tech and business world. Trump has given conflicting signals about how he feels about the Ellisons and Paramount. After his administration approved the Ellisons’ earlier takeover of Paramount, Trump complained on Truth Social that “60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before.”
Trump has also said publicly he would stay out of the antitrust process, though he has previously suggested personal involvement. David Ellison was in Washington this week attending President Trump’s State of the Union address as a guest of Sen. Lindsey Graham, while Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was seen arriving at the White House just before 4 p.m. on Thursday. Both sides were clearly working every angle available to them, right up to the final hours.
Whether that proximity to power helped or hindered either side may never be fully known. What is clear is that a deal of this magnitude — one that would place CNN, CBS News, HBO, and two of Hollywood’s five largest movie studios under a single ownership structure — will face intense regulatory scrutiny regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.
What a Combined Paramount-WBD Would Look Like
The strategic logic of the Paramount Skydance bid is hard to dismiss. A combined Paramount-WBD would bring together HBO Max with Paramount+, merge Warner Bros. and Paramount Skydance Studios, and put CNN and CBS News under one ownership structure. In an era where streaming giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Disney have pulled enormous market share from legacy media, the case for consolidation among traditional studios and broadcasters has only grown stronger.
Where Netflix was buying the premium half of WBD — essentially poaching the crown jewels while leaving cable assets behind — Paramount wanted the whole company. WBD’s board repeatedly rebuffed offers and ultimately got Paramount to raise its bid to $31, up 63% from the original bid of $19 in September. WBD’s stock has surged 78% since, while the share prices for Paramount and Netflix have fallen 36% and 30%, respectively.
That last data point is worth sitting with. Shareholders of both Paramount and Netflix have paid a steep price during this fight. WBD shareholders, on the other hand, watched their stock nearly double. The board played its hand well — or was simply fortunate that Paramount wanted the deal badly enough to keep bidding.
What Comes Next
The deal is not final. With a Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder vote scheduled for March 20, WBD and Paramount Skydance will need to agree to and release specific, detailed deal terms soon. The deal must also be approved by government regulators. Given the scope of what’s being assembled — news networks, streaming platforms, movie studios, cable channels — a meaningful regulatory review is all but guaranteed.
There is also the unresolved question of CNN. The network has long been a flashpoint in any conversation about media bias and political influence. Placing it under ownership linked to the Ellison family and, by extension, a political world friendly to the current administration raises questions that deserve to be asked plainly, even if the answers won’t come quickly. David Ellison has addressed some of these concerns in writing — he wrote to Senator Cory Booker in February arguing that Paramount Skydance’s ownership would expand streaming and theatrical distribution — but he did not directly address questions about CNN’s editorial direction under new ownership.
For now, the immediate winner is clear. Netflix walked away from a deal it pursued aggressively for months, and a media empire that includes some of the most recognizable names in entertainment is poised to land in the hands of a young CEO with enormous financial backing and a father who is one of the most connected men in America. Whether that turns out to be good or bad for audiences, journalists, and the broader culture of American media remains to be seen. The story is far from over.
