Back in August, Skydance and Paramount‘s big merger was finalized, but there is now an industry report claiming that Skydance is now setting its sights on gobbling up another big film and television studio with Warner Bros. Discovery next.
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Skydance is looking to make a majority cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (which had a nearly $33 billion market capitalization back on Thursday) with the help of the Ellison family.
If the deal were to be made, Skydance would get its hands on Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, New Line Cinema, HBO Original Films, HBO Max, CNN, TBS, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and TNT. Along with all the film franchises, hit TV shows, and originals that come with that.
READ MORE: Legendary Entertainment Reportedly Considering An Acquisition of Lionsgate
You might be unaware that David Ellison‘s (head of Skydance) father is billionaire Larry Ellison (who briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the “richest man on Earth“) of tech company Oracle Corp, and speaks to the big bucks being thrown around.
However, the outlet cautions that “scale of the potential combination could bring antitrust and regulatory scrutiny.” Skydance getting its hands on Warner Bros. Discovery might be a harder sale to come together than the previous one for Paramount and could be more about signaling their ambition in the entertainment space than anything else.
Of course, this might make many nervous about their future at WBD and overall industry competition, given that when Discovery’s David Zaslav stepped in (notably from the world of TV, reality shows, and nature documentaries), he took a wrecking ball to various scripted divisions at the company and would go on to kill a handful of completed/shot films for tax write-off purposes. So, what could happen with Skydance taking the reins and their plans for the company is a little unclear, along with how it would fit into what they’re already doing with Paramount and their subsidiaries.
This isn’t the only chatter of massive studio sales potentially on the horizon, as there had been talk that Legendary was considering an acquisition of Lionsgate, but without a major update on that front, we haven’t seen that one formally come together.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
