 "Media giant Warner Bros Discovery is up for sale: Anybody can bid")
In a development that could reshape the American media landscape and further strengthen President Donald Trump’s crackdown on journalists, media giant Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday said it was considering either a partial or full sale of the company.
In a statement, the Board of Directors said the company would explore full sale, partial sales, and spin-offs of current businesses. It added that the company would also continue with its planned split into two entities, separating its cable and television business from its streaming and production divisions.
Currently, Warner Bros. Discovery owns Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, the CNN news channel and associated digital properties, the Discovery network and all its subsidiaries, and the HBO television channel and HBO Max streaming service.
As any deal will likely require approval from federal regulators, Trump is expected to emerge as the principal dealmaker. He is anticipated to extract either monetary or ideological concessions from the company’s new owners — just as he did with the Skydance–Paramount merger.
In the case of the Skydance–Paramount merger, regulators only approved it after CBS, which was owned by Paramount, agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit he had filed after being angered by a CBS news programme during the 2024 election campaign. Shortly after the merger, the new owner, David Ellison, appointed Bari Weiss —a right-wing, Trump-aligned media personality with no background in television journalism— as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News.
There are concerns that something similar could happen with Warner Bros. Discovery-owned CNN if the conglomerate proceeds with any deal. CNN has frequently been the target of Trump and his far-right base’s ire.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump’s friend eyes CNN-owner Warner Bros. Discovery
So far, Paramount Skydance, NBC-owner Comcast, Netflix, and Amazon have reportedly expressed interest in a partial or full acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount Skydance is owned by the Ellison family, which is aligned with Trump. Paramount Skydance’s Chairman, David Ellison, and his father, Larry Ellison —co-founder of Oracle— are longstanding friends of Trump and are deeply embedded within the Trump administration.
Paramount Skydance has offered to buy Warner Bros. Discovery at around $20 a share, valuing the company at approximately $49 billion, according to The New York Times.
If the Paramount Skydance acquisition goes through, it would reshape the American news media landscape, bringing two of the six main news networks —CNN and CBS News— under the same ownership. The Ellison family is expected to attempt to reshape CNN just like it has sought to reshape CBS through the appointment of Trump-friendly Weiss as the Editor-in-Chief.
The Times has reported that executives at Warner Bros. Discovery expect the streaming business to be attractive to a variety of buyers, such as Netflix, Amazon, and Apple.
Some analysts believe that one or more of these three companies could also enter the bidding for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, spurred by Paramount Skydance’s interest, according to the newspaper.
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