Warner Bros. Discovery to become regime-aligned

With one of the biggest upshots presumably being that CNN is about to be Bari-ed:

Paramount Skydance PSKY 10.04%increase; green up pointing triangle emerged victorious in the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery WBD -0.35%decrease; red down pointing triangle after Netflix NFLX 2.29%increase; green up pointing triangle said it wouldn’t match the David Ellison-led company’s latest offer for the iconic Hollywood property.

Netflix pulled the plug on its deal soon after the Warner board of directors said it determined Paramount’s $31-per-share offer for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s bid for Warner’s movie and television studios and HBO Max streaming service. Paramount is now poised to take control of the entertainment company, home to properties and brands including HBO, Superman and Harry Potter.

“We’ve always been disciplined, and at the price required to match Paramount Skydance’s latest offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive, so we are declining to match,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a statement. “This transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price,” the pair said. 

Pending regulatory approval, Paramount will own not only Warner Bros. and HBO, but also many popular cable networks including CNN, TNT, TBS and Food Network. The deal would represent a major ground shift for the entertainment industry, which is trying to adapt to seismic shifts in audience habits and technology.

This was always where things were headed — it’s hard for an entity trying to run a business to compete with one happy to turn some of the acquired properties into MAGA loss leaders, and Netflix was going to have a tougher regulatory path too. But this further pro-Trump media consolidation is really bad,