Led by David Ellison and backed by his centibillionaire father, Larry Ellison, #Paramount Skydance submitted a $77.9 billion hostile takeover bid for #WarnerBros Discovery (WBD) on Monday, emerging as the acquisition attempt seemingly favored by Donald Trump.
The Ellison-led media group positioned itself as an alternative to Netflix’s recently announced $72 billion agreement to acquire Warner Bros.’ film studio and streaming giant HBO. The proposal would leave out CNN and WBD’s less desirable cable channels, which are set to be spun off into a separate company next year.
The younger Ellison has sought to convince the Trump administration to support his bid for WBD by offering assurances “that if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN,” the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. (Since acquiring CBS News over the summer, David Ellison has already made that network far more conservative.) #markets #finance #MandA #entertainment #streaming