Paramount was poised to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. What went wrong?

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Oracle founder Larry Ellison was on the cusp of conquering Hollywood.

Only four months prior, he had financed his son David’s $8 billion purchase of the famous Paramount Pictures.

The Ellison family then made a move to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, offering to purchase the whole company for at least $60 billion. This ambitious offer quickly placed the family, and particularly David Ellison, the CEO of the combined Paramount Skydance, among the most influential players in the entertainment world.

It seemed like Warner Bros. Discovery was within Paramount’s reach. Experts on Wall Street and in Hollywood, as well as other companies interested in buying it, largely predicted Paramount would win. They had strong support from a very wealthy investor, and even former President Trump publicly stated he favored their offer.

Ellison’s biggest achievement was overshadowed when Netflix unexpectedly announced a similar, large-scale agreement on Friday.

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A group representing movie theater owners quickly criticized Netflix’s almost $83 billion agreement to acquire Warner Bros. and HBO. Netflix has historically skipped traditional movie theaters, choosing to release films directly on its streaming service.

The streaming service acquired Warner Bros., including its film and TV studios, HBO Max, and HBO, for $82.7 billion. This deal was a significant setback for Ellison and his son, David.

As a film buff, I’ve been following the Paramount drama closely. It seems Larry Ellison stepped up to support another bid, but the Warner Bros. Discovery board ultimately felt that Netflix’s offer – $27.75 a share, though it didn’t include the cable networks – was a stronger choice for those who own stock in the company. They clearly weighed their options and decided Netflix was the better path forward.

The news surprised a lot of people who thought Paramount would win the competitive bidding process. It was also an unusual loss for Larry Ellison, as he was outplayed by Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos and his team.

According to analysts and people familiar with the auction, several issues made the process difficult. These included low offers from Paramount and an overconfident approach.

Lloyd Greif, head of the investment bank Greif & Co., stated that today is a setback for Paramount and the Ellisons. He believes their overconfidence stemmed from a failure to recognize how strong their competitors were.

Paramount and Warner Bros. did not offer any comment. Oracle, reached through a representative for Mr. Ellison, also did not respond to inquiries.

According to sources familiar with the situation, Elon Ellison remains firm in his position. Paramount, represented by a former head of antitrust enforcement from the Trump administration, is bracing for a legal fight with Warner Bros. over how the auction was conducted. They plan to ask both the Securities & Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice to look into concerns that a deal with Netflix would create unfair competition and negatively impact consumers and movie theaters.

On Wednesday, Paramount sent a strongly worded letter to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, claiming the studio manipulated the bidding process to favor one company and neglected its responsibility to its shareholders.

What went wrong

Several sources said Paramount’s first mistake was making low-ball offers.

By mid-October, Paramount made three offers to buy Warner, starting at $19 per share. However, Warner’s board members unanimously turned down all of the offers, finding them insufficient.

Warner Bros. leaders were furious, believing the Ellisons were new to Hollywood and were unfairly using the studio’s difficulties to their advantage.

According to a source familiar with the deal, Larry Ellison pledged $30 billion worth of his Oracle stock to back Paramount’s attempt to acquire Warner. The source wasn’t permitted to speak publicly about the arrangement.

As the cost of acquiring Warner increased, Paramount found itself needing a much larger sum of money. To cover the expense, they approached Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm.

By late October, Warner Bros. allowed other companies to make offers. Netflix and Comcast quickly expressed interest. Several sources involved in the sale said Paramount underestimated Netflix’s desire to acquire the company. A Netflix executive had previously stated publicly that they weren’t very interested.

Paul Hardart, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, suggested that Netflix might have been pretending to be weaker than it is.

Someone familiar with the auction process said Paramount acted as if they had no competition, believing they were the only serious bidder.

For a while, people at Paramount appeared more focused on what Brian Roberts, the chairman of Comcast, was doing, especially after his trip to Saudi Arabia, which sources said involved discussions about theme parks.

David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale of RedBird were working quickly to secure additional funding from Middle Eastern investment groups for their bid.

According to Hardart, their efforts to secure funding from other sources likely made the Warner Bros. Discovery board question their plans.

Sources familiar with the sale process reported that Paramount held talks with investment funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

USC business law professor C. Kerry Fields questioned how dedicated Paramount really was, suggesting there was reason to doubt their stated commitment.

As Oracle’s stock price fell due to worries about an artificial intelligence bubble, it made Paramount’s attempt to acquire it even riskier.

Worries over Trump ties

In Hollywood, Larry Ellison’s close ties to Trump dampened enthusiasm for Paramount’s bid.

Oracle is likely to become a major owner of TikTok’s U.S. operations after it separates from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. This move is largely due to support from former President Trump and the involvement of several U.S. investors.

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I have to say, watching Ted Sarandos’s career has been fascinating. He wasn’t always a big name – in fact, he started as a video store manager in Arizona! Now, he’s practically running Hollywood as co-CEO of Netflix. It’s a real underdog story, and it’s amazing to see how far he’s come. He’s truly become one of the most powerful figures in the industry.

I was really surprised to hear about everything happening at Paramount this summer. It came out that they paid a whopping $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over how CBS handled an interview with Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes.” Apparently, it all happened while they were trying to get the green light for the Skydance deal. And then, just days later, they announced Stephen Colbert’s show was ending, saying it wasn’t making enough money. It feels like a lot happened very quickly, and I can’t help but wonder if the lawsuit settlement and the show’s cancellation are connected somehow.

In October, David Ellison made a somewhat controversial decision by hiring Bari Weiss, the founder of The Free Press, to lead CBS News – a move that pleased the president.

In mid-October, Donald Trump told reporters that both Larry Ellison and his son, David, are strong supporters of his.

Following reports that Donald Trump stepped in, Paramount Pictures decided to release “Rush Hour 4” in late November. The film had been put on hold after allegations of sexual assault against its director, Brett Ratner, were published in the Los Angeles Times. Ratner denies these allegations.

Initially, they had a strong relationship with the Trump administration, but public opinion began to shift, making that connection less favorable, according to Hardart.

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A group representing movie theater owners quickly criticized Netflix’s almost $83 billion agreement to purchase Warner Bros. and HBO. Netflix has historically avoided traditional movie theaters, choosing to release films directly on its streaming service instead.

I heard some interesting things happened last month! Apparently, there was a meeting at the White House where they talked about Paramount trying to make a deal and how Netflix is shaking things up. And get this – David Ellison was at a dinner hosted by Trump for the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, around the same time. It makes you wonder if there’s a connection, right?

According to a Guardian report, some international regulators are concerned about discussions held by White House officials. The newspaper claims, based on unnamed sources, that these officials talked with Larry Ellison about CNN anchors that Donald Trump disliked and wanted dismissed if Paramount were to acquire Warner.

Sources say David Zaslav and his longtime advisor, John Malone, a Warner Bros. Discovery board member, unfairly favored Warner Bros. Discovery over Paramount. These sources also suggest Zaslav is trying to maintain his position as a powerful leader in the industry.

Despite making six offers to Warner, including a last bid of $30 per share, Paramount couldn’t match Netflix’s proposal, according to sources close to the negotiations.

Sources say Paramount leaders realized on Monday they had lost out in negotiations. By Wednesday, they formally protested to Warner Bros. Discovery, with their lawyers accusing Warner of abandoning a fair and reasonable negotiation process.

Netflix announced Friday that finalizing its current deal will likely take between one and a half to one and a half years while it receives approval from regulators. However, there’s no certainty it will be approved, as concerns about Netflix’s strong position in the market could lead to antitrust issues.

Now they’re girding for fight with Warner Bros. Discovery over its handling of the auction.

You know, before all this buzz about his latest projects, most folks in Hollywood just knew Larry Ellison as that guy who made a quick cameo in ‘Iron Man 2’ – Tony Stark even called him the ‘Oracle of Oracle,’ which was pretty funny. But beyond that, a lot of people didn’t realize he’s been a huge behind-the-scenes supporter of his kids, David and Megan, helping them launch their careers in the film industry.

Those who know Larry Ellison say he should not be counted out.

Even at 81 years old, Larry Ellison remains fully engaged with Oracle. While he stopped being CEO in 2014, he still serves as executive chairman and chief technology officer, and continues to play a key role in the company’s ongoing expansion.

Brent Thill, a tech analyst at Jefferies, noted the company’s ability to constantly innovate and overcome challenges. He explained that just when it seems they’ve reached a limit, they find a way to succeed and demonstrate remarkable resilience.

Ralph Ellison was raised on Chicago’s South Side by his aunt and uncle. His mother was nineteen years old and unmarried when he was born, and they lived in a simple apartment.

As he told Fox Business, “I had all the disadvantages necessary for success.”

Ellison was a bright and determined individual who started at the University of Chicago but left to pursue his own path. He drove to California in an older car and began working as a computer programmer for a bank – the first of many similar roles he would hold at different companies.

In the early 1970s, Ellison started his career building databases at Ampex. This work is often considered the foundation for what would eventually become Oracle’s database systems.

Let me tell you about a fascinating story in tech history. Back in 1977, Larry Ellison started Oracle with just $1,200 and a really innovative idea – it all stemmed from a research paper he’d read at IBM. What Oracle did was completely change the game for businesses dealing with massive amounts of data, giving them a better way to store, manage, and find what they needed. It quickly grew into a major tech force. Interestingly, one of their very first clients was the CIA – talk about a high-stakes beginning!

I remember reading about Larry Ellison and Oracle becoming a public company back in ’86. It was incredible to watch their success, and seven years later, in ’93, he finally made it onto the Forbes billionaire list – with a net worth of $1.6 billion! It really felt like witnessing the rise of a tech titan.

Larry Ellison was even more of a larger-than-life personality than most of the wealthy and unconventional figures in Silicon Valley. His life has been the subject of numerous biographies – at least ten, in fact – including one from 1997 titled “The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison.”

While most other tech leaders kept to themselves and maintained a polished public image, Ellison openly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and didn’t mind being the center of attention.

Larry Ellison enjoys adventurous hobbies, including flying fighter jets. He’s also a highly successful sailor, having won the America’s Cup twice, in 2010 and 2013. Beyond that, he collects luxury items like super yachts, grand mansions, and samurai swords.

As Oracle and its CEO, Larry Ellison, became incredibly wealthy, he gained a reputation for being a tough and uncompromising leader. For many years, his biggest rival was Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. During Microsoft’s antitrust trial in 2000, Ellison surprisingly admitted to hiring detectives to search through Microsoft’s trash, and he actually justified it, claiming he was simply fulfilling a public service.

Mike Wilson, who wrote a biography of Ellison, famously compared him to Charles Foster Kane, the central character in Citizen Kane, suggesting he was a similarly powerful and complex figure in the world of technology.

While leading Oracle, Ellison focused on growing into areas like cloud technology, healthcare, and most recently, artificial intelligence. This included building strong relationships with major AI companies like Nvidia, Meta, and xAI.

Hollywood became the world of Ellison’s children, David and Megan, from his marriage to Barbara Boothe. The couple divorced not long after Megan’s birth.

Let me tell you, growing up Ellison was…unique. His kids were raised by their mother on a beautiful horse farm right in Woodside, part of the Bay Area. But when school let out? Forget summer camp. These kids were jet-setting around the globe with their dad, hopping aboard one of his incredible super yachts. Talk about a different childhood!

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David Ellison, the CEO of Skydance Media and son of Larry Ellison, is now a leading candidate to acquire Paramount Studios.

The tech entrepreneur established trusts for his children early in his career, funding them with significant amounts of stock in Oracle and, later, NetSuite – a software company he invested in that went public in 2007. These trusts, through their investments, have made his children, David and Megan, incredibly wealthy over time.

Luckily, both Megan and David had the financial backing from their dad, Larry Ellison, to chase their movie dreams. Megan started Annapurna Pictures, and they’ve produced some really amazing indie films like “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Her.” I was a little surprised to learn David actually tried acting and producing first – his movie “Flyboys” didn’t do so well – but he quickly found his stride with Skydance Media. They’ve been behind some huge hits, like “Top Gun: Maverick” and the newer “Star Trek” movies, and even branched out into TV with shows like “Grace and Frankie.” Now they’re doing animation, sports, and gaming too – it’s pretty impressive!

Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s film school, explained that David handled the finances while his sister created the artwork.

And Larry Ellison often stepped in.

So, back in 2018, Annapurna Pictures was really struggling – we’re talking hundreds of millions lost after a few movies just didn’t connect with audiences. I remember hearing they needed a serious shake-up, and this person really stepped in to lead that whole reorganization and try to get things back on track.

Ellison primarily financed his son’s $8 billion offer to acquire Paramount, along with its associated networks like CBS and MTV, and now owns the majority of the new company’s stock – almost 78% – making him the largest single investor.

The Ellison family is investing heavily in Paramount Pictures, planning to modernize the studio with new technology and expand successful series like “Top Gun,” “Star Trek,” and “Yellowstone.”

And they aren’t ready to walk away from Warner Bros.

If history has proven anything, Ellison is always up for a fight.

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2025-12-07 03:33