Warner Bros. may have a new owner soon. The entertainment company has been in existence since 1923, though there have been a number of changes over the years and especially in the last decade. Most notably, WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc. merged in 2022 to form Warner Bros. Discovery.
The company’s current holdings include a wide-ranging variety of ᴀssets, including the Warner Bros. studio, DC Entertainment (which recently had a major hit with 2025’s Superman), HBO and its streaming service HBO Max (which just earned a record-breaking 142 Emmy nominations), Discovery Channel, CNN, and Cartoon Network.
According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the Paramount Skydance Corporation is “preparing a majority cash bid” for Warner Bros. Discovery. It is aiming to purchase the entire company, which previously announced that it would be restructuring its divisions into two separate companies, separating its streaming and studios business from its global networks.
This deal would be for the company as is, including the networks and the studio. This news comes just over a month after Paramount Global was officially taken over by Skydance on August 7.
What This Possible Corporate Acquisition Means
Should this purchase be made, it would make for an incredibly powerful entertainment corporation, combining the holdings of Warner Bros., Discovery, Paramount, and Skydance into a single company. Even before this possible acquisition, Paramount Skydance has a huge roster of holdings and a great deal of IP under its control.
One of their biggest ᴀssets is the iconic studio Paramount Pictures, which is the company behind the Star Trek franchise, as well as other popular blockbuster franchises including Mission: Impossible, Transformers, and Sonic the Hedgehog. Other recent hits of theirs include Top Gun: Maverick, Smile, Scream VI, and A Quiet Place: Day One.
Top Gun: Maverick grossed $1.496 billion against its reported $170 million budget, making it the 14th highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide.
Paramount Skydance’s holdings also include Paramount+, CBS, Pluto TV, Nickelodeon Productions, BET Media Group, Showtime, Comedy Central, and the Paramount Network, which is the home of the hugely popular neo-Western series Yellowstone, which has spawned a number of Paramount+ spinoffs.
Our Take On The Possible Acquisition Of Warner Bros.
Paramount Skydance acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery would not result in an entertainment monopoly, largely because one of their rival companies, The Walt Disney Company, would have a similar number of holdings. Disney already has major ᴀssets including Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, 20th Century Studios, Pixar, ABC, Hulu, Disney+, and Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Hulu’s standalone app is set to merge with the streaming service Disney+ in 2026.
However, the acquisition of Warner Bros. would still mean that a huge number of entertainment companies would belong to just two corporations. This could limit the future possibilities of the entertainment industry, as there will be a less and less diverse number of corporate leaders approving the development of future projects.
