Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has begun a bidding process to sell the company in a deal that could cost as much as $80 billion. The controversial executive has already turned down three bids from Paramount Skydance's David Ellison, but they remain the most likely buyer.
Ellison's father, Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, is worth $350 billion, so money isn't an issue. Crucially, he's also a close friend of President Donald Trump, and the Trump administration is backing the billionaire's takeover bid.
According to The New York Post, other potential Warner Bros. Discovery suitors are likely to face "stiff hurdles from US regulators," and a senior government official tells the site that "Who owns Warner Bros. Discovery is very important to the administration."
They add, "The Warner board needs to think very seriously not just on the price competition but which player in the suitor pool has been successful getting a deal done. And that points to the Ellisons."
The Trump administration's support is problematic for other potential buyers. Comcast, for example, "includes the anti-MAGA coverage of the cable giant’s far-left network MSNBC" and owns NBC, the network that airs Saturday Night Live (a show that ridicules Trump every week).
Netflix and Amazon raise significant antitrust concerns, given how much they already dominate the media landscape, while Disney doesn't appear to be in the mix at all.
The report adds, "insiders said Zaslav in particular will be forced to consider regulatory hurdles that not only include antitrust concerns but also the Trump administration’s willingness to crack down on what it sees as rampant left-wing bias across the mainstream media."
There's definitely cause for concern with Skydance's potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts raised one of those on X while discussing a potential merger.
"If Paramount Skydance buys up Warner Bros, many of the shows you watch will all be owned by the same company — and they can jack your prices up," she wrote. "We can't let that happen. We have antitrust laws for a reason, and it's on Donald Trump to enforce them."
Paramount is a studio that doesn't have that many successful film franchises, so on that front, an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would be hugely beneficial to them. What it means for DC Studios is a mystery, though we'd expect it to be business as usual for James Gunn and Peter Safran (at least to begin with).
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