Warner Bros. Discovery sold to Paramount Skydance. Change of ownership of CNN and TVN

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance signed an agreement on Friday for the takeover of WBD by PSKY, said Bruce Campbell, one of WBD's directors, quoted by Reuters. The transaction is worth USD 110 billion.

As reported by Reuters, citing a recording of a meeting with employees, Campbell, the director responsible for the company's strategy, announced that the contract was signed on Friday morning.

Netflix had the right to equalize the offer with PSKY (Paramount Skydance). As you all know, he ultimately didn't use it. As a result, an agreement with PSKY was signed this morning. And this is what it looks like, said the company's representative.

The details of the concluded contract are not yet fully known. According to Reuters, the transaction is worth USD 110 billion. WBD's management previously reported that Paramount's offer included payment of $31 per share plus an additional 25 cents in the event of a delay in finalizing the transaction for each quarter from the end of September. Additionally, Paramount agreed to cover the $2.8 billion cost of canceling the Netflix takeover agreement and to guarantee a $7 billion payout if the deal is blocked by regulators.

The funds to cover the transaction are to be guaranteed by Larry Ellison – the owner of Oracle and the father of Paramount's CEO, David Ellison – as well as funds, among others. from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

End of competition with Netflix: Why did the streaming giant withdraw from the game?

The takeover of WBD – along with television channels such as CNN and the Polish TVN – by the Ellisons, who support President Donald Trump, comes after many months of competition with Netflix. Opposition to the takeover of WBD by Netflix was expressed by some Republican politicians and, indirectly, by Trump himself, who recently demanded that Netflix dismiss former adviser to Barack Obama, Susan Rice, from the management board. Trump also said that a possible transaction should lead to a change of ownership of the CNN station he dislikes, while Netflix did not want to acquire television channels owned by WBD.

Netflix had the right to submit a new offer, but did not exercise this optionconcluding that it would not be financially beneficial for the company and claiming that the acquisition of WBD was not necessary for the company. The announcement of the withdrawal from the competition came after Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos visited the White House on Thursday for talks about the deal.

What's next for CNN and TVN? Concerns about mass layoffs in newsrooms

According to Variety, CNN and CBS News employees and journalists fear that fThe union will lead to mass layoffs in both channels. CNN, in turn, reported that Paramount's management talked about the possibility of combining both channels. An employee of one of these stations told PAP about such concerns.

Since Trump took power, the Ellisons' companies – Skydance and Oracle – first took control of Paramount, along with CBS Television, and are also part of the consortium that took control of American TikTok.

Reuters also reported on Friday that Paramount Skydance expects an easy path to regulatory approval in the EU, where the company has a relatively small market share.

From Washington Oskar Górzyński (PAP)

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