The faces behind Paramount’s Warner Bros. – Business News
We all know that Paramount Skydance lastly gained the bidding battle for Warner Bros. Discovery.
But who was the actual winner on this takeover tussle of the century?
The epic, six-month tango between some of the biggest gamers in media for the proprietor of the Warner Bros. studio, HBO Max streamer and CNN got here to a suitably beautiful end late Thursday — though common readers of this column most likely weren’t too stunned.
Let’s begin with Netflix and its co-CEO Ted Sarandos, the architect of the streaming giant’s thwarted bid to snare WBD. Until simply days in the past, he had remained the official frontrunner. Ted can best be described as each a winner and a loser.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos departs the White House on February 26, 2026 in Washington, DC. Getty Images
He’s a winner right here for the easy cause that he walked away, albeit after tons of drama. That’s as a result of Netflix didn’t need to do that deal. Shares of Netflix soared more than 10% after I posted on my X feed that Netflix was going to cave.
Deals like this aren’t how Netflix grew to become one of the largest and most profitable media com panies ever created. It has grown organically. Yet Sarandos spent months cobbling collectively mountains of debt whereas inviting regulatory scrutiny. By dropping out, Sarandos can go back to building his business.
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Now right here’s why Sarandos is a loser: He went there. Why this seasoned media mogul thought all this was a good deal for shareholders (he misplaced $200 billion in market worth during negotiations) — and why he thought he had a shot with the Trump antitrust cops in combining the No. 1 and No. 3 streamers — remains to be a thriller.
It’s additionally nonetheless unclear if the feds have fully dropped their early Section 2 Sherman Act monopoly inquiry into Netflix’s already highly effective measurement and its means to squeeze customers.
Then there’s David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.
He’s a clear winner. I’ve identified Zas for years, when he toiled via the infrastructure of NBCUniversal, then decamped as CEO of Discovery Inc.
Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison arrives earlier than President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union tackle on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Feb. 24, 2026. AP
He acquired his large break working a bona fide media conglomerate in 2022 when AT&T spun out Warner Media and his mentor, the legendary John Malone, organized a new company combining it with Discovery and making Zas its CEO. He acquired off to a rocky begin, taking heat for price cuts as a result of of all of the debt concerned and for not delivering on outcomes.
But slowly, Zas started to rebuild what’s now Warner Bros. Discovery. In 2025, his company was poised for one thing large, however you wouldn’t realize it from its stock price. Then magic occurred: first, an unsolicited bid by Paramount Skydance at $19 a share when his stock was at round $12.
Then he went to work dangling WBD in entrance of a who’s who of media and tech corporations. He acquired loads of curiosity till there have been simply two, Netflix and Paramount Skydance.
Zas wished a minimum of $30 a share and people laughed. Last week, he acquired his quantity plus a buck as Paramount swooped in with a $31 a share, $80.5 billion offer.
David Zaslav attends “One Battle After Another” world premiere on the TCL Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California on September 8, 2025. AFP through Getty Images
Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison can be a winner, and never only for pulling off the defining media deal of his era. He additionally displayed the knowledge to put one of the best media dealmakers within the business, Gerry Cardinale, in charge of his pursuit of WBD.
Ellison is the son of tech billionaire Larry Ellison, who supplied financial backing for the deal, so it’s tempting to jot down him off as a fortunate sperm child. I’m right here to let you know he’s sensible and insightful and is aware of what he doesn’t know. He began with a small indie movie producer, noticed the depressed values in media and snapped up Paramount, with its studio, low-ranked streamer and once-prominent CBS unit.
Now, Ellison sits on prime of one of the largest media corporations on the earth. He snared what appeared like a white whale by taking part in the long recreation: lawsuits difficult WBD’s initial determination to sell to Netflix, hostile bids and many of acrimony. Yes, there’s tons of debt on this deal, and there will probably be cost-cutting. But as I see it Ellison actually didn’t overpay on the finish.
People thought he would use his dad’s money to win by throwing $34 a share at Zas however he stopped at $31. The cause: Cardinale, the best bidding-war banker within the business.
He additionally listened to his GC, Makan Delrahim, and pops and didn’t overpay. Cardinale & Co., noticed the regulatory shoals confronted by Netflix.
If Ellison is a winner, so is Cardinale and the people round him.
Elsewhere, one other winner is PSKY’s reliably sensible and accessible flack, Melissa Zukerman; one other loser: Netflix board member and partisan Democrat Susan Rice, who irritated the White House with some dumb feedback about President Trump on the worst doable time.
But if these are the most recent scores, indications are that the onerous half could also be what comes subsequent, as this new media giant, no matter it’s known as, weighs painful price cuts and rejiggering to remain aggressive. Stay tuned for the subsequent crop of winners and losers.
