Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison remains committed to his bid to take over Warner Bros. Discovery despite the media giant rebuffing his past three offers, believing he has a “Trump card” in his back pocket that makes him the only buyer who can close the deal.
Additionally, Ellison – whose father is Oracle founder and close Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison – has reportedly expressed reluctance to overpay for the rival studio and media conglomerate, believing he won’t have to pay more than $25 a share for WBD because he has the president “in his corner.”
Raising Ellison’s confidence that he will be able to merge Paramount with Warner Bros’ Discovery – and combine the companies’ movie studios and streaming services – is the president’s well-known resentment of Brian Roberts, the CEO of potential rival bidder Comcast.
While it has been known for weeks that Ellison – with the backing of his father, the world’s second richest man – desperately wants to add Warner’s assets to his burgeoning media empire, it’s only now apparent just how aggressive he’s been with his overtures.
A representative for Paramount declined to comment.
Earlier this week, Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav essentially hung a “for sale” sign on the company’s door, announcing that WBD was considering a variety of potential deals, which would include either a total sale of the company or a spinoff of various assets. Zaslav also stated that this was in response to interest from several suitors.
“We took the bold step of preparing to separate the company into two distinct, leading media companies, Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, because we strongly believed this was the best path forward,” he declared in a statement, adding that “it’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market.”
At the time of Zaslav’s announcement, both Comcast and Netflix had been reported as parties interested in purchasing some or all of WBD’s assets. Comcast, however, may only want to acquire a portion of Warner Bros., particularly as it has recently spun off most of its cable properties – including MSNBC and CNBC.
Earlier this year, Zaslav outlined plans to split the company's cable and streaming operations. One business would consist of HBO, HBO Max, Warner Bros. Television, DC Studios, and Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group. The other spinoff would feature cable channels CNN, Discovery, TNT Sports, TBS and other digital properties, including Bleacher Report and the streaming service Discovery+.
The New York Times, meanwhile, reported on Wednesday that the announcement that Warner Bros. was up for sale was prompted by Ellison ratcheting up his takeover bids in recent weeks, culminating in an offer this month to buy the entire company for $23.50 a share.
It was that latest bid that seemingly kicked off the feeding frenzy from other suitors, who began kicking the tires to gauge Warner Bros.’ interest or at least force Paramount to raise its bid to merge the two media giants.
As the Times noted, a “takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount would be a tectonic shift” for the industry at large.
“It would combine two of the largest Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount, granting huge clout at the box office and putting CNN and CBS News under the same corporate umbrella, which would give the new company enormous sway over the news industry,” the Times pointed out. “It would combine Paramount+ and HBO Max, two of the biggest streaming services, bringing the company’s movies and shows into hundreds of millions of living rooms.”
In a letter to the Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors, who unanimously rejected his latest offer, Ellison wrote that Paramount “was confident that we are the best partner for WBD” and that it was the only viable suitor for a merger. “Other potential acquirers of WBD — today or in the future — would need to overcome significant (perhaps insurmountable) hurdles given their dominant market positions,” he added.
While any merger attempt from a media rival would face regulatory scrutiny, which has also led some potential suitors to abandon past efforts to combine with Warner, Ellison's message to the WBD board seems to imply that the administration will be sympathetic to Paramount.
It was just a couple of months ago that Ellison’s Skydance Media closed its $8 billion merger with Paramount after a politically fraught process. Prior to receiving the Trump administration’s approval for the deal, Paramount paid the president $16 million to settle a “meritless” lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, a payoff that has prompted a Democratic probe into potential violations of anti-bribery statutes.
Trump, who claimed that Ellison reached a pre-merger “side deal” with him as part of the settlement, has repeatedly praised the Paramount chief and his father, calling them “friends of mine” and “big supporters of mine.”
Since taking over Paramount, Ellison has also hired a former Trump appointee to be CBS News’ ombudsman, purchased the anti-woke digital site The Free Press and installed Free Press founder Bari Weiss as the news network’s editorial leader, prompting criticism that Ellison is pushing the company in a rightward direction to appeal directly to the president.
According to CNN’s Brian Stelter, Ellison is “publicly remaining quiet but is privately exuding the kind of confidence that comes from having tens of billions in cash,” all while Paramount argues that Ellison is the only one who can gain approval from the Trump administration. “That's the Trump card,” an Ellison adviser told Stelter.
“Paramount is leveraging this relationship in its pursuit of WBD. ‘Trump's implicit support for the deal is their number one talking point,’ the person involved in the negotiations said,” Stelter further reported, though some Paramount insiders retuted that and claimed Ellison made other pro-merger arguments in his letter to Warner Bros.
The New York Post’s Charlie Gasparino, who is also a Fox Business correspondent, reported this week that Ellison believes he doesn’t have to increase his offer to WBD by much more because of his friendly relationship with the president.
“That’s because Ellison is being advised that US antitrust concerns and personal gripes will be a major stumbling block for rival bidders – and that, on that front, Paramount Skydance will have the backing of President Trump,” Gasparino wrote, noting that the president’s disdain for Roberts will also help Ellison.
“No less significant, sources close to Ellison say, is the fact that the president is said to privately loathe Brian Roberts, the chief executive of cable giant Comcast, who in many respects is the most logical rival bidder for WBD,” he reported. Indeed, Trump has repeatedly blasted Roberts on social media and in remarks from the White House.
In the wake of Gasparino’s story, media reporter Tim Baysinger observed on social media that mergers and acquisitions are “now solely based on whether or not the President likes you,” prompting the Fox personality to admit that “this is funny and kinda true.”
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