What Just Happened
Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav disclosed the deal in a global employee townhall on Friday morning, February 27, 2026. Reuters obtained an audio recording of the call. The deal was signed earlier that same morning.
The acquirer is Paramount Skydance - the company formed after David Ellison's Skydance Media completed its own merger with Paramount Global in late 2025. This deal now adds Warner Bros Discovery on top of that, creating the largest combined media entity in Hollywood history by IP portfolio.
Netflix walked away. The streaming giant had made a competing all-cash bid of approximately $108.4 billion, but pulled out of the bidding earlier this week - sending its own stock up as investors cheered the decision to avoid the debt-heavy acquisition.
The financing: Larry Ellison's family trust committed $45.7 billion in equity (up from $43.6B in a prior offer). Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Apollo are providing $57.5 billion in debt financing. The combined entity will carry approximately $78 billion in total debt.
Warner Bros - 102 Years of History
Warner Bros is not just a studio. It is the closest thing Hollywood has to a founding document - one of the original four major studios that built the entire American film industry from scratch.
Warner Bros By The Numbers
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1918 (Burbank, CA) |
| All-time global box office | ~$140 billion |
| Highest grossing film | Barbie (2023) - $1.44B |
| Harry Potter franchise total | $7.7 billion (8 films) |
| DC Extended Universe total | ~$12 billion |
| HBO subscribers (Max) | ~95 million |
| Annual revenue (2024) | ~$39 billion |
| Current debt (pre-merger) | ~$39 billion |
| Key IP owned | Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, The Hobbit, Looney Tunes, CNN, HBO, DC Comics |
Top Warner Bros Films of All Time
| # | Film | Year | Worldwide Box Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barbie | 2023 | $1,441,000,000 |
| 2 | Aquaman | 2018 | $1,148,000,000 |
| 3 | The Dark Knight Rises | 2012 | $1,085,000,000 |
| 4 | The Dark Knight | 2008 | $1,005,000,000 |
| 5 | Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Pt 2 | 2011 | $1,342,000,000 |
| 6 | Batman v Superman | 2016 | $873,000,000 |
| 7 | Inception | 2010 | $836,000,000 |
| 8 | Interstellar | 2014 | $773,000,000 |
| 9 | The Matrix Reloaded | 2003 | $742,000,000 |
| 10 | Oppenheimer | 2023 | $952,000,000 |
Paramount - 114 Years of History
If Warner Bros built the sound era, Paramount built the industry itself. Founded in 1912, it is the oldest surviving American film studio and the last major studio still headquartered in Hollywood proper.
Paramount By The Numbers
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1912 (New York / Hollywood) |
| Age | 114 years old - oldest US studio |
| All-time global box office | ~$120 billion |
| Highest grossing film | Titanic (1997) - $2.18B |
| Mission: Impossible franchise | $3.6 billion (7 films) |
| Transformers franchise | $4.8 billion (6 films) |
| Paramount+ subscribers | ~68 million |
| Annual revenue (2024) | ~$29 billion |
| Key IP owned | Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, Transformers, Indiana Jones (partial), Top Gun, SpongeBob, Yellowstone, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon |
Top Paramount Films of All Time
| # | Film | Year | Worldwide Box Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Titanic | 1997 | $2,187,000,000 |
| 2 | Top Gun: Maverick | 2022 | $1,493,000,000 |
| 3 | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | 2011 | $1,124,000,000 |
| 4 | Transformers: Age of Extinction | 2014 | $1,104,000,000 |
| 5 | Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning | 2023 | $567,000,000 |
| 6 | Iron Man 3 (distributed) | 2013 | $1,215,000,000 |
| 7 | Forrest Gump | 1994 | $678,000,000 |
| 8 | Indiana Jones & Kingdom of Crystal Skull | 2008 | $790,000,000 |
| 9 | War of the Worlds | 2005 | $591,000,000 |
| 10 | A Quiet Place Part II | 2021 | $297,000,000 |
The Combined Empire: What Paramount+Warner Owns
This is the IP picture of the combined entity. No other single media company on Earth will own this much:
| Category | Paramount Skydance | Warner Bros Discovery |
|---|---|---|
| Superhero | None (sold Marvel to Disney) | DC Universe - Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern |
| Sci-Fi | Star Trek (entire universe) | The Matrix, Dune (partial) |
| Fantasy | None | Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings (partial), Game of Thrones |
| Action | Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, Transformers | Mad Max, John Wick (partial) |
| Animation | SpongeBob, Nickelodeon library | Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo |
| Streaming | Paramount+ | Max (HBO) - 95M subscribers |
| News/TV | CBS News, MTV, Comedy Central, BET | CNN, HBO, TNT, TBS, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet |
| Classic Film | Paramount vault (114 years) | Warner vault (102 years) + New Line Cinema |
The Debt Problem
The combined entity will carry approximately $78 billion in total debt - a figure that Hollywood insiders are already calling the deal's greatest threat.
Warner Bros Discovery currently holds ~$39 billion in debt - a hangover from the 2022 AT&T spin-off. The additional $57.5 billion in acquisition financing brings the combined total to levels that have no precedent in media. For context: Netflix's entire debt load is around $14 billion. Disney's is ~$47 billion.
David Zaslav's cost-cutting regime at WBD since 2022 was precisely aimed at reducing this debt load before a sale. He cancelled dozens of projects, eliminated thousands of jobs, and shelved completed films (including the $90 million Batgirl) to claim tax write-downs. The goal was to make WBD look manageable to a buyer. It worked - Paramount paid $110 billion for it anyway.
The Ellison Angle
David Ellison is 41 years old. His father is Larry Ellison - co-founder of Oracle, currently the world's third-richest person with a net worth exceeding $170 billion. Skydance Media co-financed films like Mission: Impossible, Top Gun: Maverick, and World War Z before David began his acquisition spree.
The Ellison family trust committed $45.7 billion in equity to close this deal - personally. This is not a PE buyout. This is one family betting $45 billion that they can run the largest media company on Earth.
The strategic logic: Paramount+Warner combined would have roughly 163 million streaming subscribers globally - still behind Netflix (300M) but ahead of Disney+ (~125M). The IP portfolio (DC + Harry Potter + Star Trek + Game of Thrones + Mission: Impossible) gives the combined entity more franchise ammunition than any competitor except Disney.
What Netflix Just Dodged
Netflix's competing bid of ~$108.4 billion was all-cash. Netflix stock jumped the day the company withdrew. Investors were relieved - taking on $39 billion in WBD debt on top of Netflix's existing structure would have been brutal.
Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters called Paramount's original offer a deal that "doesn't pass the sniff test." He was publicly skeptical of the valuation. In the end, Netflix let Paramount win - and Wall Street rewarded that restraint immediately.
The Bottom Line
This is the largest media merger since AOL-Time Warner in 2000 - and that one lost $99 billion in value within two years. History is not on the side of mega-media mergers. Every major consolidation in Hollywood history has been followed by debt crises, mass layoffs, and creative disruption.
But the IP case is undeniable. Whoever controls Batman, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Game of Thrones, Mission: Impossible, and Max simultaneously controls the majority of the Western world's most beloved pop culture. That is worth something. Whether it's worth $110 billion plus $78 billion in debt - that's the $188 billion question.
David Ellison, 41 years old, now has to answer it. Hollywood is watching.
Sources: Reuters (exclusive townhall audio, Feb 27 2026), Bloomberg, NPR, Variety, ABC News, The Numbers, Statista. Deal confirmed via Warner Bros Discovery global townhall recording reviewed by Reuters. All box office figures via The Numbers / Box Office Mojo. Historical studio information via Wikipedia and company records.