{"id":246653,"date":"2025-10-23T17:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/246653\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T17:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T17:58:09","slug":"david-ellison-may-have-a-trump-card-literally-in-warner-bros-discovery-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/246653\/","title":{"rendered":"David Ellison may have a \u2018Trump card\u2019 \u2014 literally \u2014 in Warner Bros. Discovery pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A version of this article first appeared in the \u201cReliable Sources\u201d newsletter. You can sign up for free here<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is \u201cundeterred\u201d after Warner Bros. Discovery rebuffed his first three offers to buy the media giant, according to a person who has been advising Ellison.\n <\/p>\n

\n The next move is unknown. But both Ellison and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav are playing their parts perfectly in this M&A struggle over one of the biggest media companies in the world.\n <\/p>\n

\n Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent of CNN, HBO Max, DC Comics, Cartoon Network, and a storied list of other brands, said earlier this week that it had started a deal review process \u201cafter receiving interest from multiple parties.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The newly formed Paramount Skydance is at the top of the list, as Ellison tries to rapidly grow his media empire.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ellison\u2019s allies are privately arguing that he is the only buyer who would pass muster with Trump administration regulators. \u201cThat\u2019s the Trump card,\u201d an adviser remarked, enjoying the double entendre.\n <\/p>\n

\n The adviser, like the other sources for this story, spoke on condition of anonymity because the companies are not commenting publicly.\n <\/p>\n

\n Privately, Ellison is exuding the kind of confidence that comes from having tens of billions in cash. His ambitions are bolstered by his father, Larry Ellison, Oracle\u2019s executive chairman, who currently ranks as the second-richest man in the world. Together they are \u201cbuilding an unprecedented media empire,\u201d as The Washington Post put it earlier this month.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, so far, WBD has turned down the Ellison entreaties. Zaslav, who has led WBD since it was formed through a 2022 combination of WarnerMedia and Discovery, is insisting that the company is worth more than the $23.50 per share that Ellison most recently offered.\n <\/p>\n

\n And the WBD board agrees, having unanimously voted to reject that bid.\n <\/p>\n

\"Warner<\/p>\n

\n Zaslav is talking internally about how HBO Max and the Warner Bros. movie studio would fit well with Amazon or Netflix, according to a person involved in the conversations.\n <\/p>\n

\n NBCUniversal\u2019s parent company, Comcast, is also taking a look at WBD\u2019s assets, sources told CNN earlier.\n <\/p>\n

\n This week\u2019s for-sale announcement signaled that many outcomes are possible: A deal for all of WBD, a deal for the company\u2019s streaming and studio assets to another company, or the already-planned split of WBD into two publicly traded halves.\n <\/p>\n

\n Lest there is any doubt, Ellison does want to buy all the WBD assets, including CNN, even though Warner is newly willing to sell pieces, sources with knowledge of the talks said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Ellison\u2019s recent acquisition of The Free Press and installation of Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief evinces a deep interest in news \u2014 in ways that worry some and excite others.\n <\/p>\n

\n Paramount\u2019s pursuit of WBD raises big questions about billionaire control of major media conglomerates. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for one, has been raising her voice about potential consumer harms.\n <\/p>\n

\n And Wall Street analysts have been asserting that President Trump\u2019s personal preferences may weigh heavily on the deal process. The commentary is a stark reminder of how the president has reshaped the government in his own image.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has repeatedly praised the Ellisons in recent months. \u201cThey\u2019re friends of mine. They\u2019re big supporters of mine,\u201d the president said in mid-October.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey will make the right decisions,\u201d Trump added. \u201cThey\u2019re going to revitalize CBS \u2014 hopefully, they\u2019ll bring it back to its former glory.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s praise is notable partly because the younger Ellison was a big Democratic donor as recently as last year. He was spotted schmoozing near Trump at two different UFC matches earlier this year, though, and he agreed to several conditions imposed by the Trump-aligned FCC in order to complete his takeover of Paramount.\n <\/p>\n

\n Additionally, the elder Ellison has expressed support for Trump in the past and has been leading a group of investors who intend to buy TikTok\u2019s US assets, potentially giving Trump a political and cultural win.\n <\/p>\n

\n Paramount is leveraging these presidential relationships as it pursues WBD. \u201cTrump\u2019s implicit support for the deal is their number one talking point,\u201d a person involved in the negotiations said.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Paramount insiders refute that, noting that Ellison made many pro-deal arguments in a letter to WBD\u2019s board that The New York Times obtained on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe are confident that we are the best partner for WBD,\u201d Ellison wrote in the letter, \u201cwith a combination of our two companies creating a scaled Hollywood champion to the benefit of both our companies\u2019 shareholders, consumers and the entertainment industry at large.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Some analysts have backed up those arguments. Paramount\u2019s bid \u201cmakes a lot of strategic sense by owning a much stronger slate of I.P. at Warner Bros. and seeking scale with the combined HBO Max and Paramount+ platforms,\u201d Robert Fishman of MoffettNathanson said in a note to investors.\n <\/p>\n

\n Fishman also said that \u201ccombining the linear network portfolios would also likely yield significant cost synergies, while unlocking strategic benefits from pairing CBS News with CNN and leveraging the long-standing CBS-Turner partnership for NCAA\u2019s March Madness Final Four plus other overlapping sports rights portfolios.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But Warner\u2019s leaders argue that Paramount is not fully valuing its assets. Plus, though the Trump factor looms large, US regulators are not the only government officials to consider.\n <\/p>\n

\n A Paramount-WBD deal would face regulatory scrutiny in the United Kingdom, the European Union and some Latin American countries. The perception of Trump clearing the way for the Ellisons in the US could hurt them in other markets, sources said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A version of this article first appeared in the \u201cReliable Sources\u201d newsletter. You can sign up for free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-246653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}