Posted originally on CTH on February 27, 2026 | Sundance
Following a Thursday afternoon visit to the White House Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos announced he was withdrawing his bid to take control over Warner-Discovery, clearing the way for Larry Ellison’s bid to succeed.
Larry Ellison and a group of financial investors now position Paramount Skydance to win control over Warner-Discovery. CNN insiders are reported to be apoplectic considering that Larry and David Ellison will now likely downsize the media group and change directions.
MEDIA – […] The development will likely see the storied Hollywood studio and a group of TV properties that includes CNN fall into the hands of Paramount, reshaping US media.
Without a Netflix counteroffer, the Warner Bros. Discovery board is now free to terminate its agreement with the streaming giant and proceed with Paramount.
The sweetened offer, made Monday, was the latest installment of a bidding war that has drawn White House attention, with President Donald Trump insisting he had a say in the outcome.
The revised Paramount offer included a purchase price of $31.00 per share in cash, a one-dollar increase from its earlier bid, which valued the company at around $108 billion.
Paramount has also offered a $7 billion regulatory termination fee should the deal fail to close on regulatory grounds, and agreed to cover the $2.8 billion breakup fee Warner Bros. Discovery would owe Netflix if it walked away from their agreement.
Crucially, the proposal also includes a commitment from Oracle founder Larry Ellison to contribute additional funding if needed to support solvency requirements from Paramount’s lending banks.
Ellison is the father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, a Hollywood producer, and largely financed his son’s takeover of Paramount and his subsequent bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Larry Ellison is also a longtime ally of President Trump, and both Paramount and Netflix have sought to curry favor with the White House. (read more)
In October of 2024, accepting the landscape that presented itself, CTH predicted Larry Ellison would eventually gain control over CBS and CNN. Everything is unfolding according to the predictable pathways that have always been visible.
October 28, 2024 – “The biggest winners from the Trump victory will be Larry Ellison (Oracle), his super influence operator Elon Musk, and their smaller -albeit ideologically similar- friend, Peter Thiel (Palantir).
This is the inside baseball stuff that circles the President Trump campaign orbit in very close proximity. This is the command-and-control influence operation that determines outcomes. When Trump wins, these interests are positioned for strongest influence.
If you want to really understand what is happening, follow this background context as the intellectual filter and you will be watching President Trump Term-2 politics with clear eyes. However, always remember, these are their personal interests. As long as they align with MAGA, all is cool. If their personal interests diverge from MAGA, we will have a problem.” (more)
CNN going bananas: “While the move all but guarantees brutal layoffs across the company, it landed like a meteor at Hudson Yards. Inside CNN, alarm bells went off as staffers began to panic over the suddenly very real prospect that they could be working for Bari Weiss before the end of the year. Within minutes of the news crossing the wire, my phone lit up with messages…” {source}
Centinel2012 