Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders are on board with Paramount Skydance’s acquisition plans.
Preliminary results from a vote held this week involving Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders show that they have decided to approve the multi-billion-dollar merger with Ellison-owned Paramount-Skydance, per a press release issued Thursday.
The deal, if completed, would combine two of the largest sports, entertainment, and news conglomerates in North America, and end one of the media industry’s biggest business sagas in years.
News broke in 2025 that Netflix had reached an agreement to purchase streaming and studio assets from Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion. But this agreement was soon put in jeopardy by a counteroffer from Paramount-Skydance, which looked to purchase the entire Warner Bros. Discovery company for an even higher value of $108 billion.
Paramount-Skydance gave WBD its “best and final offer” earlier this year, offering to pay $31 per share and cover a $7 billion fee if regulators blocked the attempted merger.
Netflix chose not to counter Paramount-Skydance’s offer in February, ending their months-long battle to take over the legendary American media giant. With shareholder approval out of the way, Warner Bros. Discovery believes the transaction could close by the third quarter of 2026, barring “regulatory clearances.”
Both Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount currently have ties to the wrestling and combat sports world.
Warner Bros. Discovery has the exclusive TV rights to AEW’s programming, airing Dynamite and Collision on its TV channels. They also have a minority stake in the wrestling promotion, a CNN report revealed earlier this year.
TKO, which owns WWE, is currently under a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal to present UFC events on Paramount.
