Middle Eastern Investors Back $111B Paramount-Skydance Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery With Insane Sums

Netflix has officially stepped back from its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, leaving the path open for Paramount Skydance to take over the media giant. Netflix had initially offered $83 billion in December for most of WBD, which would have included HBO, HBO Max, and the Warner Bros. studios, while spinning off cable networks like CNN into a separate company.

Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, challenged Netflix with a higher all-cash offer. Paramount raised its bid to $31 per share, which Warner Bros. called a “superior proposal.”

Netflix decided not to match the new offer, saying in a statement, “The transaction we negotiated would have created shareholder value with a clear path to regulatory approval. However, we’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match the Paramount Skydance bid.”

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, expressed support for the Paramount deal, saying it would “create tremendous value for our shareholders” and called the merger an opportunity to “tell the stories that move the world.” CNN CEO Mark Thompson also sent a note to staff, cautioning against jumping to conclusions and reminding employees, “We’re still near the start of what is already an incredibly newsy year at home and abroad.”

The deal has drawn criticism from advocacy groups and politicians. Free Press warned that the merger would “endanger our democracy by giving a family of pliant billionaires even more control of vast swaths of our news coverage, TV stations and movie studios.” Senator Elizabeth Warren called it an “antitrust disaster” that would let “Trump-aligned billionaires … seize control of what you watch and charge you whatever price they want.”

Concerns are heightened because Paramount’s funding includes roughly $24 billion from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds based in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. Critics, including former FTC member Alvaro Bedoya, have raised questions about the influence these foreign investors could have on American media content. Bedoya tweeted, “One family is about to control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. … Block this rotten deal.”

The merger follows a string of high-profile moves by Ellison’s companies. Skydance merged with Paramount in an $8 billion deal last year, and the company also acquired Bari Weiss’s Free Press for $150 million, naming her editor-in-chief of CBS News. Weiss has already made major staffing and programming changes, including delays to a controversial “60 Minutes” segment on Venezuelan migrants in El Salvador.

So far, Paramount Skydance and government officials have not commented publicly on the deal, leaving questions about regulatory approval and the future of American media under a mix of U.S. and Middle Eastern financial control.

This deal raises serious questions about media influence and ownership. Having billions backed by foreign sovereign funds controlling key U.S. networks is unprecedented and could shape what audiences see and hear. It’s a high-stakes mix of business, politics, and culture. I’m curious to know what you think, do you see this as a positive business move or a threat to media independence? Share your thoughts in the comments.