Netflix just dropped $83 billion to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery's studio assets, marking what could be the most consequential media deal in a generation. But Paramount Skydance, backed by Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison's tech fortune, isn't backing down—the company launched a $108 billion hostile takeover bid that includes the cable channels Netflix passed on. At stake: HBO, CNN, Warner Bros. Pictures, and Hollywood's survival strategy against an AI-generated content tsunami that most studios are woefully unprepared for.
Netflix isn't acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery because it wants to. It's doing it because the alternative is existential oblivion. The streaming giant's $83 billion bid, now accepted by Warner's board, represents the starkest admission yet that Hollywood's old playbook is burning—and most studios are still fumbling for the fire extinguisher.
The deal landed last week like a seismic shock through an industry already reeling from years of mismanagement. Netflix gets Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, and the studio's vast content library. What it doesn't get: the cable channels, including CNN and TBS, which the company views as declining assets in a streaming-first world. "We're focused on premium content that serves our global subscriber base," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement, per The Verge.
But David Ellison has other plans. The Paramount Skydance CEO, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, fired back with a $108 billion hostile bid that would scoop up everything—cable channels included. His pitch? That traditional distribution still matters, and that his father's AI war chest gives them the firepower to outlast Netflix's subscriber-only model. According to internal documents reviewed by Variety, Ellison's team believes regulatory scrutiny will kill Netflix's bid anyway.
