Paramount swallows Warner Bros. and creates the Skydance colossus in the shadow of Trump

BarcelonaAfter months of negotiations, this Tuesday Paramount closed the deal to buy Warner Bros. and thus create a great entertainment giant that will be called Skydance. The operation catapults the new company to the forefront of the entertainment and streaming sector, in direct competition with Netflix, Disney and Amazon. "Today is a historic day not only for Skydance, but for the entire industry," David Ellison, owner of the new media group, assured in a statement. To be able to add this succulent asset, the company has disbursed 99 billion euros, since Warner shareholders have been fully compensated in cash.

In this way, one of the great soap operas of recent years within the entertainment industry comes to an end. To be able to keep Warner Bros., Ellison had to unseat Netflix, which was the first company to express its interest in buying the company (and obtained the approval of the Warner board of shareholders). The businessman also overcame the opposition of a lawsuit for possible monopoly presented by an association of prosecutors in the United States. Finally, the legal conflict was resolved with an agreement that guarantees the editorial independence of CNN –which is part of the acquired company– and the commitment to allocate 1.5 billion dollars to the production of films over five years, to allay the fear that this concentration of power could lead to a thinning of investments in cinema. Thus, the new giant is obliged to promote 30 films and 180 series each year.

After the purchase of Warner Bros., Ellison now has under his control three streaming platforms –Paramount+, HBO Max, PlutoTV– that add up to nearly 300 million users (although in the latter case they are not subscribers, because it is a free service with ads). In addition, to obtain the real number of clients, duplications would have to be eliminated. But it is clear that, with this magnitude, it can look eye-to-eye at industry leaders such as Netflix (325 million), Prime Video (between 200 and 250 million) and Disney+ (132 million paid subscribers, but it approaches 220 million if other group platforms such as Hulu or the sports-focused ESPN+ are added).

Beyond streaming, Skydance will treasure cable channels and news networks, such as CNN and CBS News. It also owns four of the most powerful franchises in the world of fiction: DC Universe (which has characters like Batman and Superman), Harry Potter, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible. After all, at the origin of the empire is Paramount, one of the biggest film studios, and the acquired Warner Bros., another of the classic big five. The new conglomerate will have other smaller studios in its portfolio, alongside these two historic brands.

Trump's blessing

This major media move has been closely followed by Trump, and it is difficult to think it would have succeeded without his decisive intervention. David Ellison's father, for starters, is a veteran ally of Trump, a donor and advisor of his. This is Larry Ellison, the chairman of Oracle. On the other hand, the American president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, participated in financing the Paramount offer that ended up ousting Netflix's through his investment fund, Affinity Partners. To further tighten the ties, Paramount hired Makan Delrahim (the top authority of the antitrust office within the Department of Justice during Trump's first term) as head of the legal team, precisely to manage the entire regulatory portfolio. His appointment was in September 2025, just three months before the company submitted its bid.

From here on, although a year has passed, the approval by the American authorities has been quite smooth, considering the labyrinth that other similar operations have had to go through. In June 2026, the Department of Justice approved the operation without requiring major divestments or concessions. And Trump himself had openly declared on more than one occasion that he would get involved in the decision regarding the sale of Warner Bros., in addition to publicly criticizing the option of Netflix taking over the company. The Republican also demanded that CNN change hands and maintains a standoff over what he considers unfair treatment by the network. Given that Paramount has shifted the editorial line of CBS News toward Trumpism, critics of the operation fear that CNN could undergo a similar process and stop being a television station with a progressive accent. Even the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, stated in public: "The sooner David Ellison takes control of CNN, the better."

For the moment, however, the CEO of CNN, Mark Thompson –former Director-General of the BBC–, announced on Monday that he would maintain his position in the new merged company. He also assured that, after having spoken with Ellison and the Skydance executives, he had "full confidence that everyone understands and will support the principle that CNN has always defended of being an independent news television station".