Paramount, Warner Bros deal would unite movie, information and social media forces : NPR

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Mark Schiefelbein/AP/AP Warner Bros. Discovery's blockbuster announcement Thursday that it will settle for Paramount Skydance's takeover bid should not be considered merely as looking for to unify two main Hollywood gamers, two large streaming platforms and two main TV information divisions underneath one roof.

It's definitely that. The almost $111 billion Paramount-Warner marriage would unite their studios — and their again catalogue of exhibits and films. It could add such franchises as D.C. Comics, Harry Potter and Sport of Thrones to Paramount's High Gun, Mission Not possible and Star Trek powerhouse. Paramount+ and HBO Max. CBS and CNN.

However there's extra to it.

Paramount Skydance Chairman and CEO David Ellison is relying largely on the monetary backing of his father, Larry Ellison — the co-founder of software program big Oracle, the lead investor in TikTok US, and one of many richest folks on the planet.

The Ellisons have staged what seems to be a lightning-swift ascent via social and legacy media relying closely on their connection to the Oval Workplace.

Ought to the Ellisons obtain a inexperienced mild from regulators to proceed with the deal, the minnow may have swallowed the whale. Warner presently has greater than 5 instances the market worth of Paramount.

That is on prime of buying Paramount itself and a significant stake in TikTok US — all in lower than a yr. And that is along with Oracle, which runs a lot of the digital spine of the nation's commerce and authorities.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5794x3863+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd5%2F1af7ab8f4cef86dc216e3f197f89%2Fgettyimages-2197490003.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5794x3863+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F79%2Fd5%2F1af7ab8f4cef86dc216e3f197f89%2Fgettyimages-2197490003.jpg" class="img" alt="Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, right, sits next to media mogul Rupert Murdoch as they listen to President Trump speak in the Oval Office on February 03, 2025." loading="lazy"/> Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, proper, sits subsequent to media mogul Rupert Murdoch as they hearken to President Trump communicate within the Oval Workplace on February 03, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America cover caption

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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2667x2667+667+0/resize/100/quality/100/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5b%2F11%2Fb16d5bad4941921efb352f9a8178%2Fgettyimages-2240944555.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2667x2667+667+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F5b%2F11%2Fb16d5bad4941921efb352f9a8178%2Fgettyimages-2240944555.jpg" data-format="jpeg" class="img lazyOnLoad" alt="Illustration of TIK TOK, October 16, 2025." loading="lazy"/>

"It is tech giants changing into media giants," argues Jon Klein, a former prime government at CNN and CBS Information.

However historical past exhibits such mega-mergers typically finish in tears. The film enterprise is pricey. Cable tv is very worthwhile however in steep decline as viewers lower the twine. The mixed firm shall be saddled with debt. So why would the Ellisons spend their billions this fashion?

David Ellison has sought to be a drive in Hollywood for years. He helped to provide films with Tom Cruise at his household's firm Skydance Media. However for his father, Larry Ellison, it is about extra than simply making his son's very costly desires come true.

"Past any {dollars} that they will derive — it is the info about shopper habits, all the way down to the particular id," Klein says.

He says the push into synthetic intelligence by Oracle creates a thirst for extra perception into how folks view information and leisure and what merchandise they purchase on-line. The streaming channels and social media big each supply better and extra granular info.

"That is the prism that you have to take a look at this Paramount/WBD deal via," says Klein, co-founder of HANG Media, a Gen Z social video engagement platform. "Oracle... needs to be one of many main gamers in AI. That is what Oracle needs to get out of media."

The deal nonetheless hinges on acceptance from antitrust regulators in Washington and Europe, who can search to dam the transaction. California's lawyer common made clear Thursday evening he would additionally give the acquisition robust scrutiny.

"If a merger considerably reduces competitors in any market, it is unlawful. Courts form of take that actually," says College of Chicago legislation professor Eric Posner, who held a senior antitrust place within the U.S. Justice Division underneath former President Joe Biden.

"However in apply, the Justice Division has discretion on whether or not to problem these mergers," Posner tells NPR. "And the courts have discretion on whether or not to dam them."

Pleasant ties to Trump President Trump's Justice Division is a wild card. Final yr, the division's then antitrust chief, Gail Slater, took an aggressive stance in opposition to Google in court docket. Final month, the Justice Division sued to dam Hewlett Packard Enterprise's $14 billion acquisition of a wi-fi tech competitor. Slater resigned underneath duress this month, nevertheless.

The Federal Communications Fee is unlikely to intervene, as no broadcast licenses would change arms within the Paramount takeover of Warner. However its chair, Brendan Carr, could effectively advise the Justice Division and he has lauded David Ellison's strikes at CBS.

Even earlier than sweetening its supply this week, Paramount proclaimed its "confidence within the pace and certainty of regulatory approval for its transaction."

Publicly, it argues that such consolidation is required to tackle streaming giants, very a lot together with Netflix but additionally Amazon Prime, Apple, Disney and YouTube.

Behind the scenes — and typically in not-so-hidden methods — the Ellisons have change into cozy with President Trump. Larry Ellison is a backer and adviser.

On Tuesday evening, David Ellison attended Trump's State of the Union tackle as a visitor of the president's ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. Graham tweeted out a photograph of the 2 males making Trump's signature "thumbs-up" gesture forward of the speech.

The president cares deeply about TV information. He has publicly mentioned he needs new homeowners for CNN — which he has blasted repeatedly as "pretend information" — and has confirmed keen to intrude in company issues in his return to the White Home.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff9%2F67%2Fb76baa65484eb00c3e4d48d727a3%2Fgettyimages-2263209996.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/5000x3333+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff9%2F67%2Fb76baa65484eb00c3e4d48d727a3%2Fgettyimages-2263209996.jpg" class="img" alt="Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos departs the White House on Wednesday. Sarandos was there to discuss Netflix's bid for Warner Bros. just hours before Warner announced its preference for Paramount." loading="lazy"/> Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos departs the White Home on Wednesday. Sarandos was there to debate Netflix's bid for Warner Bros. simply hours earlier than Warner introduced its desire for Paramount. Andrew Leyden/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America cover caption

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Andrew Leyden/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America Netflix chief Ted Sarandos met Thursday with administration officers on the White Home — although notably not with Trump, in response to an aide — in a last-gasp effort to salvage his firm's competing bid. By the top of the evening, Netflix had given up the battle.

The shadow solid over the method by the president has impressed sharp criticism of the trail that Paramount and the Ellisons took to land the Warner deal.

"A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires try to grab management of what you watch and cost you no matter worth they need," Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts mentioned in an announcement. "With the cloud of corruption looming over Trump's Division of Justice, it's going to be as much as the American folks to talk up and state attorneys common to implement the legislation."

"It isn't simply the seemingly open corruption of this complete course of that leaves me shaken," writes Jeffrey Blehar within the conservative Nationwide Assessment. "I'm shaken by how little folks will care."

Mentioned Seth Stern, head of the Freedom of the Press Basis, "Ellison will readily throw the First Modification, CNN's reporters and HBO's filmmakers underneath the bus in the event that they stand in the way in which of increasing his company empire and fattening his pockets."

CNN's future hangs within the steadiness The Ellisons' acquisition of Paramount adopted the same path.

Final summer time, the earlier homeowners of Paramount introduced the top of late evening host Stephen Colbert's CBS present as they sought federal approval to promote the corporate to David Ellison.

Whereas they cited economics, Colbert's was the top-rated late evening present on community tv — and he has been a lacerating satirist of the president. Colbert referred to as the cancellation a "large fats bribe."

Ellison subsequently made extra pledges to the FCC's Carr to win assist. Amongst them: he promised the cessation of range, fairness and inclusion initiatives all through Paramount and the addition of an ombudsman to discipline complaints of ideological bias. He named the previous head of a conservative assume tank to that position.

Carr blessed the sale. He has since praised the shifts made at CBS Information.

The query of what occurs to CNN hovers prominently over the Warner sale. The community has undergone rounds of cuts underneath a collection of homeowners looking for to scale back debt; Paramount can be its fourth company father or mother in underneath a decade.

Different parts are in play as effectively.

CBS's new editor in chief is Bari Weiss, founding father of the center-right opinion and information web site The Free Press. Ellison purchased the positioning and added it to Paramount's portfolio.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/8192x5464+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F19%2F2c%2Fff4860b149f99fb4b90b63c4f5af%2Fgettyimages-2250986773.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/8192x5464+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F19%2F2c%2Fff4860b149f99fb4b90b63c4f5af%2Fgettyimages-2250986773.jpg" class="img" alt="Bari Weiss, CBS News' editor in chief, interviews conservative activist Erika Kirk in a CBS town hall event in December." loading="lazy"/> Bari Weiss, CBS Information' editor in chief, interviews conservative activist Erika Kirk in a CBS city corridor occasion in December. CBS Photograph Archive/CBS through Getty Photos/CBS cover caption

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CBS Photograph Archive/CBS through Getty Photos/CBS Weiss has contended CBS and far of the remainder of the media has been too reflexively hostile to conservatives and the president, and he or she's sought to revamp the newsroom.

CNN's Anderson Cooper, who has additionally served as a correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes for twenty years, lately introduced that he would depart the present, citing the will to spend time along with his babies. Associates, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren't approved to reveal inside community issues, say he was involved in regards to the method that Weiss has taken at CBS.

She is taken into account more likely to have a task over CNN as effectively, ought to the deal undergo.

CNN CEO Mark Thompson urged colleagues to concentrate on their information protection. "Regardless of all of the hypothesis you have learn throughout this course of, I might recommend that you do not leap to conclusions in regards to the future till we all know extra," he wrote in a memo Thursday.

Perceived worth past the underside line The deal David Ellison struck for Warner is valued at almost $111 billion. The brand new firm would carry substantial money owed and have Saudi and Emirate backing. The income are presently comparatively modest.

But Klein contends bigger motives are in play. Simply take a look at Google, he says, which owns what many contemplate the dominant media firm, YouTube.

"They need to know what you watch, and the place you come from, and what you purchase whenever you watch, and the place you go after you purchase, and what you publish within the feedback and what you want and love and all that," Klein says.

"And for those who can mix that along with your streaming content material and your studio choices and your advertising for all of the content material product you are creating," he provides, "you are in a really very highly effective place."