The freshly-merged Paramount Skydance is exploring a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, heralding potentially more change in an entertainment landscape that’s seeing rapid shifts.
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| Deadline |
Larry Ellison, chairman and co-founder of Oracle, is one of the richest people in the world and the patriarch of the Ellison family, which led the $8.4 billion deal that landed his son David Ellison’s Skydance Media with control of Paramount Global. That transaction closed August.
There’s been speculation since that the big, new and deep-pocketed player in Hollywood would turn its sights on Warner next, but the focus had been on Warner Bros. Studios, which is in the process of separating from the company’s global cable networks and linear television. The Paramount deal currently being explored, however, seems to be for the entire company.
“Ellison has been looking at Warner Bros for a while,” an individual close to Paramount brass told Deadline this morning. “Nothing new there, he’s just taking a closer look, assessing the pros and cons.”
A report in the Wall Street Journal that Par is preparing an offer sent WBD shares surging in afternoon trade. They’re off their highest for day but up more than 30%. The WSJ said the bid would be mostly cash and backed by the Ellison family.
Neither company would comment.
WBD CEO David Zaslav said yesterday (Sept. 10) that the separation of Warner Bros. and Discovery Global is on track for April.
An acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would likely not have to clear the FCC, as the company does not hold any broadcast licenses. That proved to be a hurdle when Skydance sought to acquire Paramount Global, owner of CBS, and the company committed to hiring an ombudsman to take viewer complaints over news content. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Paramount had tapped Kenneth R. Weinstein, former president and CEO of the Hudson Institute, a right-leaning D.C. think tank, for the role.
That said, the combination of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount is the type of horizontal merger that typically draws Justice Department scrutiny, as it has the potential to take competition off the board. In this case, it would put two legacy studios, Warner Bros. and Paramount, along with legacy brands such as Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, under the same owner. And while the Antitrust Division is typically free of political interference, all bets are off in this administration. Even though Donald Trump has praised the Ellisons, Warner Bros. Discovery owns CNN, a target of the president’s attacks even more than CBS News ever was.
Or, as a source close to the billionaire Born To Be Wired author quipped, “John Malone moves in mysterious ways.”
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