Readers may or may not have noticed that Netflix is acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery for …
The cash and stock transaction is valued at $27.75 per WBD share (subject to a collar as detailed below), with a total enterprise value of approximately $82.7 billion (equity value of $72.0 billion). The transaction is expected to close after the previously announced separation of WBD’s Global Networks division, Discovery Global, into a new publicly-traded company, which is now expected to be completed in Q3 2026.
The numbers involved are a bit eye-watering, but otherwise it’s just the usual business maneuvering that goes on everyday.
And then this comes along:
Paramount Skydance (PSKY) announced on Monday a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) in an all-cash deal worth $30 per share, or roughly $108.4 billion, as the company moves to top Netflix’s (NFLX) deal struck last week to acquire the storied studio. [yahoo!finance]
The CEOs involved are always important, but now it’s a step up in this case because …
The tentative deal between Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, agreed to by the boards of both companies, has yet to receive approval under the federal government’s antitrust review process, where success is far from guaranteed.
My bold. And who runs intruder Skydance Paramount?
David Ellison (born January 9, 1983) is the son of Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison, a centibillionaire. He is an American film producer serving as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Paramount Skydance since August 2025. [Wikipedia]
And Larry Ellison is fabulously rich and famously ruthless.
I shan’t be surprised to hear that Skydance wins the day by, effectively, bribing the Administration to give them a pass on an acquisition, while denying Netflix permission for same. Yes, Ellison makes Trump look poor, but it’s also not a coincidence that Netflix is representative of change, a virtual icon of streaming of entertainment, while Paramount is closer to being Old Guard – and thus more likely to be closer to the President’s heart. Although Ellison didn’t make his money in movies, but in database technology. A small contradiction there.
Or you can just call it mercantilism and be done with it.
In any case, it’ll be shrill corruption, and I expect it to occur. I wonder how the bribe will be handled, and how the GOP will justify it. Sausage making at its best.
