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Paramount launches a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Link information
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- Title
- It's a Bidding War: Paramount Attempts Hostile Offer for Warner Bros.
- Authors
- Alex Weprin,Erik Hayden
- Published
- Dec 8 2025
- Word count
- 975 words
I really hope that this completely fails. We're talking about giving a major stake of American (global, really) media to middle eastern countries with a long history basic disregard of human rights, totalitarianism (Including the blatant murderand dismemberment of foreign reporters), denial of women's rights, etc.
Any sane democratic country would not allow this
dealtakeover to happen, but we are obviously way past thay point in th US.I'm much more worried about the Ellison family potentially owning an even larger share of the media. They're already set to have Tiktok in the US which is bad enough.
I honestly think Netflix getting their properties is fine. Netflix used to have tons of licensed content, and it was never an issue. Sure, streaming is more popular now, but television is increasingly competing with short-form video content on social media.
There are things I dislike about Netflix, but I trust them a hell of a lot more than the Ellisons.
Also as bad as this is for theaters something like this was going to be inevitable. There are people that believe Paramount is the better choice since they’re committed to theaters but I don’t think it’s worth giving the Ellison’s all of this just to delay the death of exhibition for a little bit longer
My understanding is that the netflix purchase does not include the news agencies, they are to be split off and Ellison is trying to pick them up ASAP.
I just got the hang of looking for the phrase “private equity” as an increasingly frequent warning light appearing in articles like this. Now I have to train that same muscle to watch out for “sovereign wealth.”
I mean, there's sovereign wealth Norway and sovereign wealth Saudi. Both are oil-derived national funds but they aren't quite the same I'd argue.
That aside though, yeah, it does look like we're seeing ever increasing investing-involvement by the petrofiefdoms.
The Saudis are looking for lucrative investment opportunities because they must find new business before their oil reserves run dry. They're kind of like SoftBank. I'd also argue they're less activist than some Chinese megacorps (see Taiwan censorship from major gaming companies).
Did I miss something about Paramount recently? I'm just over here thinking "so, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon would potentially be under one roof"
I'm not paying close attention but the claims are that Paramount doesn't have the funds but is instead being backed by the Saudi's. I don't think this is conspiracy/secret, but I also haven't bothered to vet it myself besides seeing people ramble about it.
It's in the linked article.
It's not a claim, it's from Paramount themselves.
Ahh I missed that part. I read now Paramount didn't have that money so they used the Elisons and Jared Kushner. But missed the Saudis chipping in.
Seems like a crazy deal to take, but then again... Trump administration. We're very much in no man's land in terms of corporate integrity.
Yeah I don't think I was being clear but I was trying to indicate as much (without having had time to really dig into the news today).
It's actually one of the more interesting questions in regards to globalization, capitalism, and democracy, but probably not the topic for the full discussion, and it doesn't much matter because we're well into "isn't this a fucking monopoly" territory before you even get into ethical/moral standpoints.
The SWFs are money men, they won't have any power over WB's governance; just a cut of the revenue.
I hope none of them go through, and this shows the investors in WBD just how valued (as a brand) they really are.
Extremely unlikely given one of the main points of this sale is that WB has valuable IPs that investors feel the current management can’t leverage, which is a fairly accurate assessment
Plex submits $35 bid for Warner Bros.
I genuinely wish that wasn't an Onion article and a real offer, just so I could entertain the insane possibility of them accepting it.
https://www.threads.com/@plex.tv/post/DSBUfP1EqWR
I don't drink alcohol but the ö makes the name feel fancy, so I'd say that's a good offer worthy of consideration!
Malört is a spirit from Chicago which has been lovingly described as tasting like, "burnt tires with grapefruit," and "rubber bands and pain." I'd personally say it's extremely bitter, rubbery, and a little honeyed. Clips of people trying Malört for the first time are always funny.
Plex made quite an offer!
I've tried Malört, and it's actually not bad. It's not something I'd choose to have often, but it has an interesting and complex flavor that gets better after the first sip. I'd probably take it over an extremely bitter IPA or gin.
Of course, I'm familiar with Moxie, which is the Malört of soda.
Do you happen to remember roughly when you tried it? I heard a rumor that the recipe changed but I can't tell if that's true or I just got used to it. I agree that it's not as bad as people say it is though; we just like scaring people.
Maybe a year ago.
Looks like there was always variance, but that there was a bit of a change in the recipe recently! I wonder if older bottles will become sought after; I sadly only have a new bottle.
Good lord why is there always some miser in the comments unable to let the joke be a joke?
Yes them up charging and changing subscriptions is annoying, no that doesn't have anything to do with the good $36 joke.
Warner Bros Discovery board rejects rival bid from Paramount
The Netflix deal will proceed.
Just think, WB entire catalog could be put into fully free public domain if we just got every person on the planet to chip in at least $12.50. Who wants to start the kickstarter for it?
Breaking: Larry Ellison Agrees to Personally Guarantee Paramount Bid for Warner Bros. in Revised Offer
Personally I wouldn’t have a horse in this race apart from two observations:
Crown Prince Mohammed Bonesaw does not belong anywhere near an operation like this and the Saudis’ money should be refused unequivocally, no matter how small the percentage of the offer their blood money actually constitutes.
Why the fuck wasn’t this entire merger DOA as a flagrant antitrust violation? Don’t answer that, it’s a rhetorical question. That used to be something people cared about. Nobody cares now. This sideshow of watching billionaires publicly jockey for ways to multiply their already ungodly net worth off the backs of the rest of us is sickening.
Tangentially, I just learned this week that Larry Ellison owns literally 98% of the island of Lāna'i in Hawaii. Nearly every single resident and business on the entire island pays him rent. Absolutely disgusting.
Not sure that this warrants a new post, but it was an interesting read related to this whole mess.
NPR on the AOL & TimeWarner Merger/Warner Bros. Curse
While I share others' concerns about Paramount winning, I hope that the fact that they are still pursuing a bid helps put more pressure on Netflix to keep its promises about continuing theatrical releases.
The pressure is gonna come from creatives. They’ve already lost projects because filmmakers want a theatrical release. Wuthering Heights, for example, Fennell decided to sell to WB (ironically) despite being originally with Netflix. She took a smaller budget to have a theatrical release.
David Ellison to Ted Sarandos right now