Just hours after news broke that the Ellison family is preparing a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said a potential merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery “must be blocked.”
With the ink on the Skydance-Paramount merger barely dry after the deal officially closed in early August, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts warned that the company acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery as well would be a “dangerous concentration of power.”
“Remember when Trump announced a multimillion-dollar secret deal with CEO David Ellison? And then — shocker — Trump approved Ellison buying CBS/Paramount,” Warren wrote in a Thursday X post. “Now, Ellison wants to take over CNN/Warner Bros. This media merger must be blocked as a dangerous concentration of power.”
Warren has been an outspoken critic of the Skydance-Paramount merger, and, with fellow senators Bernie Sanders and Ron Wyden, launched an investigation into whether President Trump and Skydance Media CEO David Ellison cut a side deal to secure approval from the FCC.
When the deal was approved by the FCC in late July, she condemned the merger online, writing on X “sure looks like they paid Donald Trump $36 million for this merger … Bribery is illegal no matter who is president.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Ellison family is preparing a majority cash bid for the entire company, though a specific price for the bid was not disclosed. A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment.
Warner Bros. Discovery is currently on track to split its TV networks and studios and streaming businesses into two separate companies by mid-2026, which would be split into Warner Bros. and Discovery Global.
