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That’s Not All, Folks: Netflix may have won the bidding war for Warner Bros., but a regulatory battle lies ahead—and Paramount’s David Ellison is loaded. getty Netflix’s announcement on Friday that it had won the intense bidding war to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery—or at least the most valuable assets, its film studio and streaming service—might seem at first glance like a stunning defeat for the David Ellison, the new owner of Paramount Skydance. After all, the 42-year-old Ellison—backed by his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, the world’s second richest man—had just acquired another legendary Hollywood studio, Paramount, in August for $8.4 billion after a lengthy regulatory process, thanks to support from the Trump administration. For much of the process, the Ellisons were believed to be front-runners for Warner Bros. Discovery, given Larry Ellison’s $269 billion fortune and the company’s willingness to purchase both WBD’s growth assets as well as its declining linear television channels. Yet even after submitting five all-cash offers, with bids reportedly nearing $30 per share, Warner Bros. chose Netflix, which offered a combined $27.75 per share to shareholders for just the studio and streamer, in a combination of cash and stock that valued the legacy media giant at $82.7 billion ($72 billion when accounting for debt). The earliest the two companies could merge would be the third quarter of 2026, when Warner Bros. expects to complete the split-off of its cable channels (including CNN, TBS and TNT), and the history of recent media acquisitions would indicate that this agreement is just the beginning of a long process filled with plenty of potential regulatory hurdles and business pitfalls. As one Hollywood executive tells Forbes, “Netflix could be going from a bidding war to a fist fight.” And even before the Netflix deal was announced, Ellison had thrown a…

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Filed under: News - @ December 6, 2025 4:27 pm