In the ongoing bidding war for ownership of media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix has backed out, making Paramount Skydance poised to make the purchase.
In October of last year, Warner Bros. Discovery opened its doors for acquisition, allowing prospective buyers to bid for parts, or the whole of the company, including all its subsidiaries. What followed was an intense bidding war between Netflix and Paramount Skydance over the ensuing months.
On Dec. 5 of the same year, Netflix officially announced they would be acquiring Warner Bros’ studio and streaming in a deal that totaled roughly $83 billion. To all involved, this seemed to be a final decision. However, on Feb. 17, Netflix granted Warner Bros. a seven-day waiver to re-engage in acquisition talks with Paramount Skydance. On Feb. 23, Paramount offered a counter bid of $111 billion, causing Netflix to back out of the deal.
Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters released a statement following their withdrawal:
“…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…this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”
If the acquisition is approved, it would add on to the media and technology empire owned by David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, and his father Larry Ellison, CEO of technology giant Oracle.
Beyond the $111 billion figure, the Paramount Skydance deal carries significant political weight, as David and Larry Ellison maintain a close relationship with President Donald Trump. This proximity has sparked intense fears of censorship. Critics point to the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2025 as a potential blueprint for the future of CNN, which the Ellisons would have direct control of through Warner Bros. While Paramount insists these decisions are strictly financial, the consolidation of CBS and CNN under owners with direct ties to the White House has led to concerns that one of Hollywood’s last major studios is being traded for political capital.
Alongside this acquisition, Larry Ellison held a lead role in the U.S. TikTok takeover, a deal heavily facilitated by President Trump, which further cements a media landscape where a single family wields an empire of traditional news and social algorithms.
The media industry now faces a question: will the growing media dynasty maintain the interests of the people, or of its political allies?
