Why stop at a mountain? Add a water tower, too! Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority-cash offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. This deal would scoop up HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, and DC Studios under the same umbrella, according to new reporting and a source familiar with the talks. Shares of WBD spiked nearly 30% on the news, while those of Paramount rose about 7%. This, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Ellison family is backing the bid and follows last month’s merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global, which created the newly combined Paramount Skydance. The company has been explicit about using scale to supercharge its film slate and streaming ambitions.
A takeover of WBD would be a seismic consolidation play in Hollywood, marrying two vast libraries and linear networks with sizable streaming platforms. While specifics of the offer aren’t public, the intent, per the reports, is to purchase the entire company, cable networks like HBO and Discovery, the Warner Bros. film and TV studios, and, by extension, DC Studios. Any such deal would face heavy diligence and regulatory review.
The timing also intersects with Warner Bros. Discovery’s own corporate reshuffle. CEO David Zaslav said this week the company expects to separate into two entities by April 2026, and that HBO Max (still branded “Max” in the U.S.) will begin a more aggressive push on password-sharing enforcement alongside potential price increases as the service leans into premium series.
What it would mean for DC Studios and the current DCU slate is far too early to call. If the bid advances, integration questions, from overlapping film groups to franchise strategy across theatrical and streaming, would unfold over months, not days. For now, the headline is simple: after closing the Skydance–Paramount merger in August, the Ellisons are already eyeing their next, much larger swing.
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