Who do you believe? The battle for control of Warner Bros. and HBO is coming down to an enormous bet on competing visions of the future of the entertainment industry.

On Dec. 5, Netflix landed a whale of a deal that sent shock waves through the community. The streamer that has upended traditional Hollywood is planning to join the ranks of studio owners with an $87.2 billion agreement to acquire Warner Bros. and HBO Max. Netflix had managed to outflank David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, which for nearly four months had been making increasingly rich offers for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including linear TV networks like CNN, TNT, HGTV and Food Network.

Ellison — angered by what he felt was an unfair sales process conducted by the Warner Bros. Discovery board and chief David Zaslav — played his next chess move on Dec. 8: Paramount announced a hostile takeover bid of $30 a share for WBD, a proposed pact with an enterprise value of $108.4 billion. “We’re taking our offer directly to shareholders because they deserve transparency and the ability to make an informed decision,” Ellison told investors and analysts on a call, noting that WBD had not responded in any way to his company’s latest offer. “Our proposal is superior to Netflix’s in every dimension.”

The Source https://variety.com/2025/film/news/why-netflix-buying-warner-bros-ted-sarandos-1236604802/