Paramount agrees to buy Warner Bros Discovery in $110bn deal

Paramount’s winning bid capped a dramatic auction for Warner Bros Discovery and followed Netflix’s decision to walk away from the takeover race. paramount appears to have clinched the transaction after rivals declined to match a higher offer.

Paramount's $110bn takeover

Paramount has struck a $110bn deal to buy Warner Bros Discovery. The deal was announced after Netflix walked away from the bidding war for the company. Netflix had declined to match Paramount's latest $31-per-share offer on Thursday, having earlier offered $27. 75 per share for the studio and streaming assets.

One earlier accounting of the Netflix offer noted that the studio's board had accepted an $82. 7bn offer in December. Another reference in the auction literature put Netflix's bid at $83bn before it withdrew. Paramount Skydance's bid has been described elsewhere as a $111bn offer in the wider takeover dispute; the winning figure reported for the transaction is $110bn.

David Ellison, chair and chief executive of Paramount, said: "From the very beginning, our pursuit of Warner Bros Discovery has been guided by a clear purpose: to honour the legacy of two iconic companies while accelerating our vision of building a next-generation media and entertainment company. By bringing together these world-class studios, our complementary streaming platforms, and the extraordinary talent behind them, we will create even greater value for audiences, partners and shareholders - and we couldn't be more excited for what's ahead. "

and CBS News staff fears

The proposed takeover means Paramount Skydance will own the news channels and CBS News, a change that has prompted sharp anxiety among staff. Netflix’s decision to walk away from its $83bn bid for Warner Bros Discovery left some staffers at CBS News and panicking about the future as the two top-tier news operations would come under the same roof.

With Paramount Skydance emerging as the winning bidder, the deal still requires the approval of Warner Bros Discovery shareholders and government regulators. Staffers fear the merging of the two networks and the potential for a significant amount of job cuts. One producer who was not authorised to comment said: "A Paramount-WBD merger is a disaster for the people who work at both companies, and if Bari Weiss takes control of, it will be the end of the global network Ted Turner founded. I don't think that's hyperbolic. "

Other reactions among staff included a second staffer who said: "because is so big and makes so much money, it was always going to attract the Ellisons" and multiple CBS News staffers who were not authorised to speak resorted to curse words after reading the news: "Fuck, fuck, fuck, " said one producer. "Well, fuck, " said another CBS News staffer. A third CBS News staffer said they expected their department to be axed if the network is merged with and duplicative services are cut, as is standard for media mergers.

Concerns over leadership and Bari Weiss

Some employees are nervous about Paramount’s Trump-friendly ownership and leadership enacting ideologically driven programming changes at the network, with particular concern about the specter of the CBS News editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, possibly getting a significant role. Weiss is described as a conservative commentator turned media entrepreneur with no previous television industry experience and has had an uneven tenure at CBS since she was appointed editor-in-chief last October.

Her path to the job was said to have been paved by concessions that David Ellison and his Skydance Media made to gain the support of Trump-picked regulators to acquire Paramount.

Content, libraries and franchises

The takeover will combine two of Hollywood's legacy studios and fold key franchises and shows into Paramount's content library. The deal means films such as Harry Potter, Superman and Barbie, as well as hit TV series such as Succession, will join Paramount's content library. Paramount's own titles include Top Gun and The Godfather, and the company operates the Paramount+ streaming service. Paramount’s victory would add not just but also Warner’s prestigious HBO network to its portfolio; HBO is known for hit shows including Succession and Game of Thrones and for award-winning documentaries.

Politics, meetings and the Netflix withdrawal

Netflix's decision to withdraw its proposed takeover has pleased elements of the president's circle and some in Hollywood, illustrating how business and politics can be entwined. On Thursday, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos went to the White House and met Department of Justice officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a meeting that the takeover reporting says had been arranged several weeks before. Observers suggested Sarandos would likely have realised he was facing a political battle over what he insists was purely a business deal.

The president posted on Truth Social that Netflix needed to fire board member Susan Rice "IMMEDIATELY or pay the consequences. " Rice, who was national security advisor to Barack Obama, said on a recent podcast that it was "not going to end well" for companies that "take the knee" to Trump. The president's post was in response to one by the far-right activist Laura Loomer, who had accused Rice of being "anti American. " Republican Senator Ted Cruz repeated Loomer's rhetoric, asking: "does Netflix stand by their board member threatening punishment and persecution for half of America that dares to disagree with her".

Many in the MAGA sphere and conservative commentators have argued Netflix is in hoc to the Obamas because the company has a multi-year deal with the production company Higher Ground, which the former president runs with his wife Michelle. When Sarandos appeared before the antitrust committee earlier in February, he pushed back on a suggestion from a Republican lawmaker that the company is "overwhelmingly woke, " insisting its programming reflects "all side of the political debate. " The company has long presented itself as a service without any political agenda, with a goal to entertain the world. For once, parts of Hollywood and MAGA have aligned.

Regulatory review and political concerns

Regulators in California are preparing a vigorous review of the deal. Both Democrat and Republican politicians in the US have raised concerns that any deal to acquire Warner Bros could result in higher prices and fewer choices for customers. Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, predicted: "[Paramount Skydance chief executive David] Ellison will readily throw the first amendment, 's reporters and HBO's film-makers under the bus if they stand in the way of expanding his corporate empire and fattening his pockets. But censorship is bad for business. WBD executives and shareholders should recognize that selling companies that depend on the first amendment to a censorial White House puppet is not only morally wrong but harmful to their bottom line. "

WBD’s chief executive David Zaslav said the merger "will create tremendous value for our shareholders. " WBD is scheduled to hold a global town hall for employees late on Friday morning. In a Thursday-evening memo to employees, chief executive Mark Thompson urged them to not jump to conclusions about what the acquisition would mean for the network; the memo included a fragment reading "Despite all the spe" that is unclear in the provided context.

Closing: The transaction now moves to shareholder and regulatory reviews, and staff and political reactions are set to shape the weeks ahead as the proposed combination of legacy studios and news operations is examined closely.