David Ellison‘s Skydance Media simply accomplished the $8 billion takeover of Paramount World 5 weeks in the past. Now, earlier than Ellion and his workforce have even completed the work of shedding upwards of two,000 staff on the newly merged Paramount Skydance to slash prices, the son of tech multibillionaire Larry Ellison is mulling what would presently be a $70 billion-plus deal to accumulate Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety Wouldn’t it make extra sense to attend till WBD splits in half — to type Warner Bros. (HBO Max and studos) and Discovery World TV networks a transaction CEO David Zaslav says is on monitor to be completed in April 2026? The WBD separation is designed to spice up the worth of its streaming and studios companies by carving off the declining TV arm. Paramount Skydane may make a play for the standalone Warner Bros. with out assuming the bags (together with the lion’s share of WBD debt) of the entity that can home CNN, TNT, TBS, Discovery and different nets. And thru a deal for standalone Warner Bros., Paramount Skydance would nonetheless get its palms on the important thing progress driver going ahead The thoughts reels at what a fused HBO Max-Paramount+ could be rebranded One chance is {that a} Larry Ellison-backed M&A play for WBD has been a part of the Skydane technique all alongsid The thought could be “to consolidate media belongings throughout a interval of industry-wide instability and construct a conglomerate with a streaming-first focus wrapped with TV and movie studios and doubtlessly a bigger linear tv portfolio MoffettNathanson analyst Robert Fishman wrote in a analysis word Thursday
And the benefit of transferring now could be that it may “preempt a possible bidding battle for under the Warner Bros. Streaming & Studios belongings post-split,” Fishman famous. “By appearing now Paramunt Skydance positions itself to safe the complete firm earlier than rivals can cherry-pick essentially the most engaging belongings Certainly, previous to information of Paramount Skydane’s prepping a bid for WBD, which was first reported by the Wall Avenue Journal, Wells Fargo media analyst Steven Cahall issued a word that pegged the long run standalone Warner Bros. as “a gorgeous M&A candidate” — with Netflix “essentially the most compelling purchaser and different potential suitors together with Amazon, Apple, Comcast Sony and Paramount Skydance
To make sure, any Parmount Skydane supply for Warner Bros. Discovery would face huge monetary and regulatory obstacles — arguably a lot better than Skydace-Paramount merger
After Warner Bros. Discovery shares zoomed up 29% on the potential Paramount bid, WBD now has a market worth of $40 billion. When including in debt (minus money and equivalents), the enterprise worth of Warner Bros. Discovery is now about $71 billion. And that could be a far greater value than the Ellisons paid to swing Skydace-Paramount Then there’s the query of whether or not a Paramount-WBD tie-up may get regulatory approval, because it represents a extra horizontal mixture of two media giants than Skydance-Paramount. Skydance was largely a manufacturing firm, with restricted overlap with Paramount World
Already popping out towards the notion of a mixed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery was Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), who wrote in a submit on X Thursday that such a media merger “should be blocked as a harmful focus of energy The Trump administration OK’d the Skydance Paramount merger, after Skydance made key concessions to the FCC together with hiring a CBS Information ombudsman to vet complaints of “bias” and promising to by no means convey again variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) initiatives on the firm. However Warren and others have alleged Paramount World’s $16 million fee to Trump to settle his lawsuit (alleging CBS Information’ “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with then-VP Kamala Harris) was a bribe” to get Trump’s blessing on their deal whereas Warren additionally referred to as out Trump’s declare that the brand new homeowners of Paramount promised $20 million value of free promoting. “Bear in mind when Trump introduced a multimillion-dollar secret take care of CEO David Ellison? After which shocker Trump permitted Ellison shopping for CBS/Paramount,” Warren wrote within the submit. “Now, Ellison needs to take over CNN/Warner Bros Skydance and Paramount mentioned they complied with all U.S. legal guidelines all through the merger course of, together with antibribery legal guidelines
