NEW YORK — Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery approved an $81 billion sale of the US company to Paramount Skydance on Thursday.

While the deal still faces regulatory review, the megamerger would vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape, further consolidating power in an industry already run by just a handful of major players.

The new merger would put CBS and CNN under the umbrella of two business leaders with longstanding ties to Israel: Larry Ellison and his son David. Their expanding media empire has alarmed liberal newsrooms, White House critics and anti-Zionist activists.

Critics view the Ellisons as more conservative and friendly to the Trump administration and Israel than many legacy media outlets. The acquisitions have drawn criticism from groups like the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

US President Donald Trump has been harshly critical of CNN coverage and backed the Ellisons, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has supported the CNN acquisition.

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Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who was raised in a Reform Jewish household, is a longtime supporter of Jewish and Israeli causes. Ellison is the world’s wealthiest Jewish individual and one of the richest people alive, briefly surpassing Tesla CEO Elon Musk last year.

He has a record of pro-Israel philanthropy and ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Oracle has also had business ties in Israel for more than 20 years. The company has hundreds of employees in Israel, built an underground data center in Jerusalem for $319 million in 2021, and supported Israeli first responders with fundraising after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

At the same time, it owns a significant stake in short-form video network TikTok’s US business operations. American Jewish leaders have blamed TikTok for allowing antisemitism to spread on its platform among young people.


Larry Ellison, chairman of Oracle Corporation, center, speaks as US President Donald Trump, left, and Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO, listen in the Roosevelt Room at the White House, January 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Skydance, run by David Ellison — the Oracle co-founder’s son — also donated to Magen David Adom after the October 7 attack. “Skydance stands with Israel,” the company said at the time.

Paramount condemned a Hollywood boycott of Israel last year, becoming the first major studio to push back, saying, “Silencing individual creative artists based on their nationality does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”

Paramount has distributed several series or films related to the October 7 attack, including “The Children of October 7,” “We Will Dance Again,” and “Red Alert.”

News

Under the merger, CNN would come under the same roof as Paramount-owned CBS. That would bring together two of America’s biggest names in television news, although whether CNN would continue to operate as a separate brand from CBS is yet to be confirmed.

Regardless, there is a lot of anxiety about Paramount taking control of CNN — a network that has long attracted ire from Trump and his allies. Critics point to Trump’s close relationship with the Ellison family, and to alleged bias by the new editor-in-chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss.

Weiss became the network’s editor after Skydance acquired The Free Press, a news outlet she founded that presents itself as a centrist and independent alternative to the liberal-leaning mainstream media, has been critical of the media’s Israel coverage, and often reports on antisemitism.


Journalist Bari Weiss speaks onstage during a Book Club event with author Peggy Noonan (not in picture) in New York on November 19, 2024. (Noam Galai/Getty Images for The Free Press/AFP)

CBS has continued to publish articles containing criticism of Israel since Weiss stepped in, drawing criticism from pro-Israel media watchdog activists. Jacki Alexander, the head of HonestReporting, a nonprofit that monitors media for anti-Israel bias, also said recently that CBS had not significantly changed its coverage of Israel since Weiss became its editor in chief.

Some officials in the Trump administration have made their support of CNN’s future ownership clear. In March, the White House attacked CNN for its coverage of the US and Israel’s war against Iran — and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told reporters that “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”

Ellison has said that editorial independence “will absolutely be maintained” under Paramount ownership. “It’s maintained at CBS. It’ll be maintained at CNN,” Ellison told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” in March, while noting that his company wants to speak to “the 70%” of viewers who he said identify as center-left or center-right.

Streaming

Paramount Skydance would own both Paramount+ and, with the sale approved by shareholders Thursday, Warner’s HBO Max. Executives have said that they would combine these streamers into one platform.

What that combined service would look like (or be named) is unclear. But David Ellison suggested that HBO could still have some level of independence, at least production-wise.

“Our viewpoint is, HBO should stay HBO,” Ellison said during a conference call last month. “They built a phenomenal brand, they are a leader in this space and we just want them to continue doing more of it. But by bringing the platforms together, all of our content will be able to reach even a broader audience than we can do standalone.”


David Ellison, CEO of Paramount Skydance, speaks during the Paramount Pictures presentation at CinemaCon on Thursday, April 16, 2026, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. (AP/Chris Pizzello)

Warner and its HBO streaming platform have a powerful lineup that includes “The Pitt,” “Game of Thrones” and “Sex and the City.” And beyond “Harry Potter,” Warner’s library lists blockbuster films such as “Sinners,” “Barbie” and “Superman” (the company also owns DC Studios). Titles like “Top Gun,” “Titanic,” “The Godfather” and “Yellowstone” fill Paramount’s catalog.

In the US, according to streaming guide JustWatch, HBO Max controlled about 12 percent of on-demand subscriptions in the first quarter of this year — compared to 3% for Paramount+. Combining those two services would still fall slightly below Prime Video’s 17% market share and the 19% of the market commanded by Netflix. Disney owns about 27% of the market between Hulu and Disney+.

Beyond HBO Max, Paramount would also acquire Warner’s smaller Discovery+ streamer. And apart from Paramount+, Paramount owns Pluto TV and BET+, too.

Critics are skeptical of the consumer benefits touted by Paramount. While company executives have continued to laud larger content libraries and the potential for Paramount to better compete with bigger rivals, a combination with Warner Bros. would mean fewer platform choices when it comes to streaming overall. Critics warn that this could actually mean higher prices at a time when the price of almost all subscriptions continues to tick higher.

Moviemaking and theatrical releases

Paramount and Warner Bros. are two of Hollywood’s oldest studios. A merger would mean fewer companies control legacy film production.

Ellison has said he wants the combined company to grow a slate to more than 30 movies a year, keeping Paramount and Warner Bros. as stand-alone operations. And in a star-studded CinemaCon appearance last week, he promised a 45-day exclusive window for films in theaters, pledging a “complete commitment” to the industry.

Still, others are wary about what further consolidation could mean for jobs and which projects are greenlit down the road. Regulatory filings have indicated that the new ownership will be looking for ways to cut costs, including layoffs and downsizing some overlapping operations. Paramount is taking on billions of dollars in debt to finance the deal.


An aerial view of the Paramount logo on the water tower at Paramount Studios on February 23, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP)

Warner Bros. just had a banner year of both major blockbusters and critical successes. The studio racked up 30 Oscar nominations thanks to “Sinners,” “Weapons,” and “One Battle After Another” (which took home the Oscar for best picture). Paramount received zero. And in 2025, Warner Bros. movies — including “A Minecraft Movie,” “Superman” and “Sinners” — accounted for 21% of the domestic box office. Paramount’s market share was only 6%, driven largely by “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.”

The industry has already experienced a sizeable consolidation. Almost 10 years ago, Hollywood’s big six became the big five when Disney bought most of 20th Century Fox. If the Warner sale goes through, a new “big four” era would be underway — with a bigger Paramount standing alongside Disney, Universal and Sony.

The acting head of the US Justice Department’s antitrust division has also said that its regulatory review will not be political. Still, critics are skeptical — particularly following Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount. That merger was approved by the Federal Communications Commission just weeks after the company agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over editing at CBS’s “60 Minutes” program. The president has continued to publicly lash out at “60 Minutes” programming since.

Other TV and cable networks

CNN is just one of the cable operations that Warner is selling. And the proposed merger would make Paramount’s TV footprint even bigger.

The company also owns Discovery, TNT, TBS, Food Network, Cartoon Network and Animal Planet, among other networks — all of which would come under Paramount ownership if the deal goes through. Meanwhile, Paramount already has its own sizeable broadcast lineup. Beyond CBS, that includes Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime and more.