Senator Elizabeth Warren is taking aim at Paramount-Skydance as the company pursues a potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, warning that a deal would raise prices for consumers.
“When we start to combine Paramount with HBO, CBS with CNN, Nickelodeon with Cartoon Network, suddenly you have fewer options and you have to pay whatever price they set to watch the news or some of your favorite shows,” Warren said in a video posted to X on Thursday. “If the deal goes through, that’ll combine HBO, CBS, CNN, Nick, Cartoon Network, Animal Planet, HGTV and literally hundreds more channels all into one company. Look, it’s a trap to set higher prices for you.”
Warren also said a Paramount-WBD merger sets the stage for “another potential wink, wink, nod, nod, deal” between Donald Trump and Skydance, pointing to Trump’s previous comments about a $20 million deal for advertising or PSAs on top of CBS’ previous $16 million settlement of his lawsuit against “60 Minutes.” (When asked about the PSAs in August, Ellison said Skydance was “not involved in the settlement in any way” and does “not want to politicize our company in any way shape or form.”)
“We have antitrust laws to put a stop to this kind of concentration,” Warren concluded. “It is time we all sound the alarm bells and enforce the laws.”
Though Ellison has declined to publicly comment on the company’s bidding for WBD, he noted earlier this month that any dealmaking by Paramount would be approached “through the lens of wanting to make more, not less.”
“The way we approach everything is first and foremost, what’s good for the talent community, what’s good for our shareholders and value creation and what’s good for basically, storytelling at large,” Ellison told Bloomberg’s Screentime conference.
In a letter to Warner Bros. Discovery’s board, Ellison expressed confidence that Paramount would be the “best partner,” adding the two companies would create a “scaled Hollywood champion to the benefit of both our companies’ shareholders, consumers and the entertainment industry at large.” He added that any other potential acquirers would need to overcome “significant (perhaps insurmountable) hurdles given their dominant market positions.”
But thus far, WBD CEO David Zaslav and the rest of the board haven’t been satisfied with the current bids that have been made by Paramount, rejecting three separate takeover offers ranging between $19 and $23.50 per share. Instead, the company has launched a review of strategic alternatives as it evaluates “unsolicited interest” from “multiple parties.”
Others who have been floated as potential suitors for WBD’s streaming and studio assets, which will split from Warner’s linear networks business in April, include Amazon, Comcast and Netflix. A Comcast spokesperson declined to comment, while a representative for Amazon did not immediately return TheWrap’s request for comment.
During their third quarter earnings call on Tuesday, Netflix executives said that they would be “choosy” with regard to M&A and reiterated that they have “no interest” in acquiring linear networks.
“It’s true that historically, we’ve been more builders than buyers, and we think we have plenty of runway for growth without fundamentally changing that playbook. Nothing is a must-have for us to meet our goals that we have for the business,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos explained. “But we focus on profitable growth and reinvesting in our business, both organically and through selective M&A. And when it comes to M&A opportunities, we look at them, and we look at all of them.”
“It’s our responsibility to look at every significant opportunity. We’ve got a clear framework to evaluate those opportunities and we’ll do whatever we think is best to grow the business,” co-CEO Greg Peters added.
In addition to continuing with the planned split into Warner Bros. and Discovery Global, WBD’s board said they would evaluate separate transactions for those two companies or a deal for the entire combined company. It also said it would consider an alternative separation structure that would enable a merger of Warner Bros. and spin-off of Discovery Global to its shareholders.
There is no deadline or definitive timetable set for this review process. The company noted that it does not intend to make any further announcements about this review until the board approves a specific transaction or determines that further disclosure is necessary.
Shares of WBD, which touched a new 52-week high of $21.25 apiece on Thursday, are up 186% in the past year, 96.9% year to date, 152% in the past six months and 7.3% in the past month.
