Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly being considered for acquisition by Paramount Skydance.
The looming proposal was first reported on Tuesday by Variety, a trade magazine for the entertainment industry, using sources with knowledge of the discussions.
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According to the publication, Warner Bros Discovery was purchased by the company after it formed an investment consortium with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
According to the report, Paramount Skydance would contribute about $50 billion to the proposed acquisition, with the rest going to the wealthy.
The involvement of sovereign wealth funds has been deemed “categorically inaccurate,” according to Paramount Skydance.
David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, cofounder of Oracle, and close ally of US President Donald Trump, is now in charge of Paramount Skydance. The Ellison family, which has all-board voting at Paramount Skydance, has previously turned down a bid from Warner Bros Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount both declined to comment on Al Jazeera’s request.
The wealth funds would own a small minority stake in the proposed structure, and each would receive “an IP, a movie premiere, and a movie shoot,” according to the report.
Warner Bros Discovery, which includes Warner Bros. Entertainment, HBO, CNN, TNT, and Warner Bros. Games, is in danger of dissolving, hurt by declines in its television industry.
The business announced in October that it was considering a number of options, including a planned separation, a deal for the entire business, or separate transactions for its Warner Bros or Discovery Global operations.
On Thursday, first-round bids are due in non-binding amounts.
According to the US news website Axios, Paramount is the only company that is currently considering a complete buyout. According to Axios’ reporting, Warner Bros. Discovery also wants to close a deal by the year’s end.
political pressures
How the Trump administration views coverage of Warner Bros Discovery’s news outlets plays a role in the looming deal.
Any bids from Comcast and Netflix are reportedly open, but any bids from Comcast would need to be approved by the regulatory body.
Trump has also repeatedly criticized Comcast for its coverage of TV news, saying the company “should be forced to pay enormous sums of money for the harm they’ve done to our country.”
Versant Media, the parent company of MS-Now, formerly MSNBC, and CNBC, is owned by Comcast, which owns NBC News and its subsidiary.
After settling a Trump lawsuit alleging that CBS’ flagship program, 60 Minutes, allegedly deceptively edited an interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump, CBS, has adopted a more cordial attitude toward the administration. This includes employing a Trump nominee as an ombudsman to investigate bias allegations.
Bari Weiss, a journalist without television experience and with a right-leaning opinion, was recently appointed to lead CBS’s broadcast news division.
Antitrust concerns are raised by any of the proposed deals. However, Rodney Benson, a professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University, said, “that would create an additional civic risk” if Paramount Skydance, which already owns CBS, now buys CNN as part of Warner Bros Discovery.
According to Benson, “asking a deal would place two important news outlets under the control of the same large, multi-industry conglomerate with avowed close ties to the party in power,” which would result in more conflicts of interest, less independent watchdog reporting, and a narrowing of diverse voices and viewpoints in the public sphere.
The parent company of CNN continues to be Warner Bros.
Source: Aljazeera
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