CNN, Warner Bros, Paramount, Netflix: Larry and David Ellison Win the Biggest Media Deal in History
The most consequential media merger in modern history is now decided. David Ellison's Paramount Skydance has defeated Netflix in a months-long bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, seizing control of CNN, HBO, Warner Brothers studios, and dozens of other properties in an $111 billion deal. The Ellison family — father Larry Ellison, the Oracle billionaire and close Trump ally, and son David — now stand on the verge of controlling the largest entertainment and news empire in the United States.
Netflix Stock and WBD Stock: How the Deal Collapsed in Netflix's Hands
Netflix announced it would not be matching Paramount Skydance's offer, saying: "The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we've always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid."
Per the terms of the original deal, Warner Bros. Discovery will have to pay a $2.8 billion termination fee to Netflix to end the existing agreement. Paramount's renewed offer — backed by Larry Ellison, the world's sixth-richest person — includes paying that breakup fee. Netflix shares slipped on the news while WBD stock surged after the board declared Paramount's offer a "superior proposal." Paramount stock also climbed as investors digested the scale of what Ellison had pulled off.
Who Owns Paramount and Warner Bros Now? The Ellison Empire Explained
The new deal will see Paramount, which was bought just last year by Ellison's Skydance Media, acquiring the entirety of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its studios, HBO, its streaming service, its games and entertainment divisions, and linear television networks like CNN, TBS, TNT, Discovery, and HGTV.
Should the Ellisons receive a green light from regulators to proceed with the deal, the minnow will have swallowed the whale. Warner currently has more than five times the market value of Paramount. That's on top of acquiring Paramount itself and a major stake in TikTok US — all in less than a year, and in addition to Oracle, which runs much of the digital backbone of the nation's commerce and government. Larry Ellison, with a net worth of $201 billion, personally guaranteed the additional equity required to complete the acquisition.
CNN News: Staffers "Shaken," Fear Bari Weiss Will Run the Network
Seven current CNN employees who spoke to NBC News Thursday night expressed a combination of fear and concern. They described the mood inside the company as "shaken" and "depressing." The central fear is that CNN will receive what journalists are calling "the CBS treatment" — a reference to the sweeping editorial changes David Ellison made after acquiring Paramount.
It was not immediately clear whether David Ellison would combine CNN and CBS News into a single news organization or operate them as separate units. "No one wants to work for the Ellisons," one on-air CNN journalist said. "And if Bari is going to be running CNN, expect people to leave." CNN CEO Mark Thompson urged employees in an internal memo not to "jump to conclusions about the future until we know more."
Lindsey Graham, the State of the Union, and Trump's Role in the Deal
Behind the scenes — and sometimes in not-so-hidden ways — the Ellisons became cozy with President Trump. On Tuesday night, David Ellison attended Trump's State of the Union address as a guest of Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Graham posted a photo of the two men making Trump's signature thumbs-up gesture ahead of the speech.
Trump has long sought to weaken CNN, and he viewed the recent bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery as another way to exert control. "It's imperative that CNN be sold," Trump said last December, signaling he favored Paramount's takeover proposal. Media critics and Democratic lawmakers called the outcome a politically engineered result, comparing it to the media consolidation tactics used by authoritarian governments in Hungary and elsewhere.
Warner Bros Discovery Deal: $111 Billion, $33 Billion in Debt, Saudi Financing Attached
Paramount's newest bid of $31 a share values WBD at about $111 billion. Paramount will take on the approximately $33 billion in debt held by Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal is also being financed by a $57.5 billion debt commitment from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Apollo Global Management.
Paramount's financing has come under scrutiny, as several Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are attached to the deal. Journalists worry that such funding could complicate or even chill CNN's coverage of the region. Paramount also promised a $7 billion regulatory termination fee if the deal fails to cross the finish line, and $2.8 billion to cover Netflix's proposed payout to Warner Bros. for their own deal failing to materialize.
What Comes Next for CNN, NFLX Stock, Paramount, and the WBD Merger
Paramount's offer, formally signed into an agreement by WBD's board Friday afternoon, still needs to go through Justice Department regulators. The root cause of concern among staffers centers on the Ellison family's collective control. "It cannot be overstated, the potential impact this is going to have when it comes to the undermining of what's considered credible news coverage," said J. Christopher Hamilton, an entertainment attorney and professor at Syracuse University.
The US Department of Justice has begun its review of the potential merger. According to CNN's own analysis, the deal could take more than a year to finalize with potential resistance from various states as well as overseas regulators. If the Paramount Warner Bros. deal clears every regulatory hurdle, a single family — the Ellisons — will control CBS, CNN, HBO, Warner Brothers, Paramount+, Discovery, TikTok US, and Oracle simultaneously. It would represent the most concentrated ownership of American media and technology infrastructure in the nation's history.
