Paramount Skydance Preparing Majority Cash Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, Report Says

Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery that would be backed by the Ellison family, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery jumped nearly 30% on the report, while Paramount rose about 7%. The Journal said a bid had not been submitted and the plans could still fall apart; Paramount declined to comment and Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the report, the potential offer would be for the entire Warner Bros. Discovery business, including its cable networks and movie studio. The move would come weeks after David Ellison’s Skydance bought Paramount Global for $8.4 billion and follows an expansion of Skydance that has been financed in part by the Ellison family.

David Ellison is the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who holds about a 40% stake in the cloud company and whose wealth surged this week to more than $360 billion, according to Forbes. The Journal said the Ellison family backing would be a key component of any bid, though analysts said any acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would likely require significant private financing given the size of the company and limitations on Paramount Skydance’s balance sheet.

Warner Bros. Discovery had a market value of roughly $30 billion before the report, and the company continues to carry substantial debt. Executives at Warner Bros. Discovery have been working to reduce leverage and earlier announced plans to separate their cable business from studios and streaming operations, a reversal of a merger completed less than four years ago.

Industry analysts said the transaction, if pursued, would attract intense regulatory review because it would combine major studio, streaming and cable assets. Warner Bros. Discovery owns properties including HBO Max, theatrical franchises such as Barbie and Harry Potter, and cable networks including CNN. The combination with Skydance and Paramount assets would consolidate significant content, distribution and news operations under a single owner.

"It’s a very doable deal, I think it might even make sense," said Douglas Arthur of Huber Research. "There’s always going to be antitrust scrutiny ... but when you’re talking about competing with Netflix and Disney, I don’t see antitrust issues on the streaming side. The studio and cable business I think probably will."

The report underscores mounting consolidation pressures in the media sector as traditional broadcasters and studios pursue scale to bolster streaming services amid declining linear TV viewership and heightened competition from deep-pocketed technology companies such as Apple and Amazon. Those rivals have increasingly invested in original content and sports rights to expand their streaming footprints.

If a formal offer is filed, the deal’s prospects would hinge on financing commitments, shareholder approval at Warner Bros. Discovery, and review by U.S. antitrust regulators. For now, the Journal and other outlets characterized the discussions as preparatory; no formal proposal had been made public as of Thursday.

Reporting on the potential bid follows a period of strategic repositioning across major media companies, with executives balancing debt reduction, content investment and distribution strategies. Any attempt to buy Warner Bros. Discovery would mark one of the largest and most complex media transactions in recent years and would reshape the competitive landscape for studios and streaming platforms.