Warner Bros Discovery shares surge on Paramount Skydance buyout report

Published on 12/09/2025 - 9:49 GMT+2

Shares successful Warner Bros Discovery surged astir 30% successful New York connected Thursday aft nan Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Skydance was preparing to bargain its rival.

Paramount Skydance’s banal besides roseate astir 16% successful regular trading.

The mostly rate bid is reportedly for nan full company, including its movie workplace and cablegram networks for illustration HBO and CNN. Warner said precocious past twelvemonth that it planned to divided into 2 operating divisions: 1 focused connected cablegram TV and nan different connected streaming and studios.

Paramount’s connection is allegedly backed by Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who concisely became nan world’s richest personification this week, overtaking tech tycoon Elon Musk. The billionaire’s son, David Ellison, runs Paramount Skydance.

The WSJ noted that a bid hasn’t yet been submitted and that plans could still autumn apart.

Paramount Skydance’s marketplace worth was $19 cardinal (€16bn) arsenic of Thursday’s close, while that of Warner Bros Discovery was astir $40bn (€34bn).

Paramount and Warner Bros did not instantly respond to requests for remark regarding reports of nan acquisition.

If approved, a merger betwixt nan 2 firms would people nan biggest consolidation successful Hollywood since Walt Disney bought nan intermezo section of Fox Corp. successful 2019.

Scale would let nan caller institution to compete pinch nan likes of streaming giants Netflix and Disney arsenic nan manufacture is redefined by changes successful accepted viewing habits.

Paramount Skydance merger

The study comes conscionable weeks aft nan finalisation of a $8bn (€7bn) merger betwixt movie elephantine Paramount and independent movie workplace Skydance Media.

This acquisition became peculiarly arguable aft it was linked to a ineligible conflict complete a CBS News interview.

In July, Paramount paid $16 cardinal (€14mn) to settee a defamation lawsuit against US President Donald Trump. The Republican leader claimed that Paramount’s CBS News successful November edited a “60 Minutes” news programme pinch then-vice president Kamala Harris successful a measurement that was deliberately deceptive.

Paramount said successful a connection that nan colony pinch Trump was “completely abstracted from, and unrelated to, nan Skydance transaction and nan FCC support process”. 

Even so, critics of nan colony lambasted it arsenic a cloaked bribe to appease Trump and let nan merger to spell ahead.

Despite nan payout, Paramount’s colony did not see a connection of apology aliases regret.

Skydance did, however, state it would extremity Paramount's diverseness programmes and name an ombudsman to reappraisal complaints of bias. Paramount besides cancelled nan left-leaning Late Show pinch Stephen Colbert up of nan merger approval.

Critics viewed nan moves arsenic further attempts to triumph complete President Trump, though Paramount denied that nan Colbert show was cancelled for governmental motives.