Not so fast, David Ellison. On Wednesday, January 7, the Warner Bros. Discovery board advised its shareholders to reject a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance for the company, citing uncertainties regarding the debt financing tied to Paramount’s offer, while maintaining that Netflix’s offer to buy the company is the superior offer. The board’s recommendation was unanimous—a tough break for Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, who has spent months publicly angling to swallow up WBD following his headline-grabbing takeover of Paramount.
“Paramount’s offer continues to provide insufficient value, including terms such as an extraordinary amount of debt financing that create risks to close and lack of protections for our shareholders if a transaction is not completed,” said Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr., chair of the WBD board of directors, in a press release. “Our binding agreement with Netflix will offer superior value at greater levels of certainty, without the significant risks and costs Paramount’s offer would impose on our shareholders.”
In December of 2025, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos announced that it had entered a definitive agreement to buy Warner Bros. for a $82.7 billion at $27.75 per WBD share. Netflix’s offer included valuable Warner Bros. assets like its film and television studios, including HBO and streaming service HBO Max, and did not include WBD’s Global Networks division—which, per the deal, would be spun off into a separate publicly traded company called Discovery Global made up of its many cable brands, like CNN and TNT Sports.
Days after the announcement, Paramount Skydance announced that it was mounting a hostile takeover bid. In his offer, Ellison—son of billionaire Oracle cofounder and Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison—offered to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in its entirety, including its cable assets, in an all-cash bid for a $30 per WBD share, for a whopping total of $108 billion. Though Paramount Skydance’s market capitalization is only around $13 billion, the company had said it would fork over the hefty price tag via backing from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, as well as from Affinity Partners—a private equity firm led by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law. Last month, Affinity Partners dropped out of the bid—days before Larry Ellison, worth approximately $240 billion, personally guaranteed that he would contribute $40 billion in equity to the deal. Daddy to the rescue.
But the powers that be at Warner Bros. have said, again, that they aren’t interested in Ellison’s offer. “PSKY’s offer is inferior given significant costs, risks, and uncertainties as compared to the Netflix merger,” reads a letter to WBD shareholders included in Wednesday’s press release. “The extraordinary amount of debt financing, as well as other terms of the PSKY offer, heighten the risk of failure to close, particularly when compared to the certainty of the Netflix merger.”
Perhaps the Paramount Skydance merger didn’t go through because no one at WBD wants to play in the sandbox with the Ellisons. Larry Ellison is one of Trump’s most powerful allies, a fact that probably rankled some feathers on the Warner Bros. Discovery board. Robert Gibbs, the board’s chief communications and public affairs officer, served as a trusted adviser to President Barack Obama, working as his communications director, first White House Press secretary, and eventually a senior adviser. Gibbs was likely less than thrilled about the prospect of the company being bought by one of Trump’s most notorious allies. Sarandos, meanwhile, is a longtime Democratic donor—though he too met with Trump before Netflix bid for WBD.
In any case, Warner Bros. president and CEO David Zaslav is probably in great spirits right now. Just a few days ago, Zaslav was getting dragged at the Critics Choice Awards by host Chelsea Handler for the way he’s run his beloved media conglomerate: “Sinners is the story of brothers who start this really fun place for entertainment, and then vampires show up, suck the life out of everybody, and burn it all to the ground,” Handler said during the ceremony. “Fun fact: The original name of the main vampire was David Zaslav.”
Now, though, Zaslav may get the last laugh. WBD has reaffirmed support for a Netflix merger that would see him stand to gain $567 million if it comes to pass, according to regulatory filings, potentially launching Zaslav into billionaire status.
Sarandos and his co-CEO Greg Peters also seem to be feeling pretty chummy at the moment. On Wednesday, Netflix released a statement supporting Warner Bros.’s decision to stay in bed with the mega-streamer. “The WBD Board remains fully supportive of and continues to recommend Netflix’s merger agreement, recognizing it as the superior proposal that will deliver the greatest value to its stockholders, as well as consumers, creators, and the broader entertainment industry,” the statement reads. “Netflix and Warner Bros. will bring together highly complementary strengths and a shared passion for storytelling. By joining forces, we will offer audiences even more of the series and films they love—at home and in theaters—expand opportunities for creators, and help foster a dynamic, competitive, and thriving entertainment industry.”
After WBD’s resounding rejection, David Ellison is now at a crossroads. He can either leave the negotiating table and admit defeat, or return with a better—and more expensive—offer than $30 per WBD share. There is one silver lining for Ellison and Paramount Skydance though. Comcast recently spun out its own cable business into a new company called Versant, which includes cable networks CNBC, MS NOW, and more. Versant’s shares have since fallen over 20%, which would suggest that Ellison’s promise to purchase WBD’s cable assets would put more money in shareholder pockets than spinning them out into their own company. (Some of that drop could be attributed to forced selling by index funds that often occurs during such corporate spinoffs.) But in a recent appearance on CNBC, Di Piazza said it would be a mistake to compare Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable networks to Versant. “Discovery Global is different; it has a lot more scale,” he said.
President Trump looms over any deal WBD makes, as federal regulators will have to sign off on any merger. This past summer, David Ellison’s Skydance merged with Paramount and its media companies, including CBS and CBS News, with the approval of the Trump administration—which came after CBS News agreed to pay $16 million to Trump’s future presidential library over a defamation lawsuit regarding the editing of a 60 Minutes interview featuring then vice president Kamala Harris. Trump has previously said that a Netflix-WBD merger “could be a problem” and has made it clear that he intends to play a role in the decision. Given the way Trump has dealt with “problems” lately (see: Nicolás Maduro), there’s no telling what might unfold.
Paramount, Netflix, and WBD did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.
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