Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN and HBO, has put itself in the marketplace. And whereas there are a number of corporations that is likely to be ready to purchase it, that’s not how issues work beneath President Donald Trump. As an alternative, his administration will get to determine.
So whereas each Netflix and Comcast have expressed curiosity, they most likely don’t have a shot. And regardless that Warner Bros. turned down three gives from Paramount, the businesses would possibly quickly be merging anyway.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has been telling people who his firm is the one purchaser that the Trump administration would settle for. In a traditional administration, such an announcement can be wildly out of pocket—an outrageous lie about his connections to the president. However today, Paramount will be assured in its “Trump card.”
“Who owns Warner Bros. Discovery is very important to the administration. The Warner board needs to think very seriously not just on the price competition but which player in the suitor pool has been successful getting a deal done,” a senior Trump official advised the New York Publish.
That’s just a few straight-up mafia shit proper there, which solely is sensible since Trump is principally working a safety racket, and Paramount appears completely happy to play ball. It had no drawback settling one in every of Trump’s sham lawsuits towards CBS for $16 million to get approval for its merger with Skydance.
Bari Weiss, CBS Information’ editor-in-chief
This raises apparent antitrust considerations, however Ellison and his father, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, are buddies with Trump, and people ties may definitely make these considerations disappear.
Larry is already a part of the group of billionaires that’s taking on TikTok as a part of an extremely candy deal the place Trump principally simply bought to determine who would purchase it and—shock, shock—simply occurred to choose his buddies.
So if Warner Bros. and Paramount merge, the Ellison household would management a staggering quantity of media.
That consolidation and management isn’t nearly handing billionaire cronies tons of money; it’s additionally about Trump controlling the media. He has sued a number of media shops and extracted tens of millions in settlements, however the largest profit is eliminating any adverse protection of him.
Trump has turned media mergers into each a money seize and a option to push his agenda—making financial institution whereas steadily constructing the state-run media he craves.
