Paramount acquires Warner – for real this time
"Harry Potter", DC, "Star Trek", HBO, CNN, and Paramount+ under one roof: The 110-billion-dollar deal is complete. This creates a media giant that will reshape Hollywood's power dynamics.
It has actually happened. After a year full of bidding wars, lawsuits, political interference, and surprising twists, Paramount Skydance has officially acquired Warner Bros. Discovery. The two companies announced this in a joint statement. The price: approximately 110 billion dollars.
As recently as August, it looked as though the deal would be delayed well into 2027. Twelve US states and the writers' union WGA had filed lawsuits, a court temporarily halted the acquisition, and scheduled the trial for March 2027. This threatened Paramount with billions in additional costs.
Well. Two months later, everything is suddenly different.
Warner now actually belongs to Paramount
On October 6, Paramount Skydance officially completed the acquisition. This creates one of the most powerful entertainment conglomerates in the world: Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, HBO Max, Paramount+, DC Studios, CNN, and CBS now all belong to the same company.
In addition, there are brands and franchises such as "Harry Potter", "Game of Thrones", "The Last of Us", "Mission: Impossible", "Star Trek", and the entire DC Universe. Or in other words: what sounded like an unimaginable Hollywood Monopoly a year ago is now reality.
The new corporation bears the name Skydance. David Ellison, the former head of Paramount, is leading it together with Ynon Kreiz, the former CEO of the toy company Mattel. Kreiz is taking over operational business and the integration of the two companies, while Ellison remains responsible for the creative direction and overall strategy.
The board of directors also has a composition that is remarkably colorful, even by Hollywood standards: in addition to Kreiz, Laurene Powell Jobs, founder of the Emerson Collective and widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and former Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick are joining. The latter, in particular, is an interesting personnel choice with regard to Warner Bros. Games. What role Kotick will actually play there, however, remains open. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also joining as an advisor to the board.
Toys, video games, tech billions, and British global politics – it certainly shouldn't be boring at the board meetings.
HBO Max and Paramount+ are being merged
Through the merger, Paramount aims to save around six billion dollars annually. Officially, a large part of this is expected to come from areas outside of the workforce, such as through the consolidation of technology and cloud infrastructure. Given the scale of the company, however, job cuts are unlikely to be avoided.
At the same time, Ellison intends to invest heavily. At least 30 billion dollars per year is to flow into content in the future. In the long term, HBO Max and Paramount+ are also to be merged into a single streaming service. The goal behind this is obvious: Netflix, Disney, and Amazon are to face a new, significantly larger competitor. Ellison himself justified the merger by saying that Hollywood had held onto the past for too long. This had given companies like Netflix and Amazon the opportunity to shake up the industry.
The bet is not entirely without risk, however. The merged company is starting with around 80 billion dollars in debt.
What happened to the lawsuits?
This is exactly where the story gets interesting. Because, in reality, this article should have appeared in the coming spring at the earliest.
In July, twelve US states led by California had filed suit against the merger. One day later, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) followed suit. The plaintiffs argued that Paramount and Warner would together gain too much power over theatrical films, blockbusters, TV licenses, and the labor market for creatives.
A federal judge took the objections seriously enough to stop the deal initially. Paramount then voluntarily agreed to put the acquisition on ice until a verdict or until June 2027 at the latest. The trial was scheduled to begin on March 2, 2027.
That will no longer happen. Paramount has reached an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiff states and the writers' union. This removed the last major legal obstacles – and what could have been a months-long blockade ended up being only a few weeks of delay.
And CNN?
This remains the most politically explosive question of this entire acquisition. CNN now actually belongs to the same company as CBS News – and thus to a company under the control of David Ellison. His father, Larry Ellison, is considered a close ally of US President Donald Trump. Trump, in turn, has been attacking CNN sharply for years and promptly welcomed the completed merger: it would be a "great company," he said on Tuesday.
However, the existing leadership remains in place. Mark Thompson remains head of CNN, and Bari Weiss retains her position at CBS News. Ellison and Kreiz remain their respective superiors. As part of the agreement, Ellison also committed to establishing a committee to oversee the editorial independence of CNN and CBS. Whether this actually has enough power to prevent political or economic influence is another question. Critics doubt it.
With this, the takeover thriller at least comes to an end. Since Warner Bros. Discovery was up for sale in October 2025, we have experienced a bidding war with Netflix, a hostile takeover bid, nine Paramount offers, lawsuits, Trump, antitrust authorities, a court-ordered stop, and finally a trial that was supposed to freeze the deal until 2027. After all that, there is actually a winner.
Warner now belongs to Paramount. This time, for real.
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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