At a virtual meeting held on April 23, 2026, the majority of Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to sell the entire company to Paramount Skydance Corporation for $31 a share in cash. Including debt, the deal is valued at nearly $110-111 billion. Making this deal one of the largest media mergers in history of the world.
The vote was always expected to pass. When Paramount offered $31 a share in late February — significantly higher than where WBD stock was trading a year ago (around $8 per share) — shareholders had every financial reason to say yes. And they did. The measure passed by a wide margin. The corporate deal-making is done. What remains is regulatory clearance, which both companies expect to resolve in time for a Q3 2026 close.
Hollywood, which has spent the past decade reorganising around streaming, just got reorganised again.
What Was Voted On — And What Was Also Rejected
Two measures were put to shareholders on April 23.
Firstly: selling WBD to Paramount for $31 per share in cash. This passed overwhelmingly.
Secondly: compensation packages for outgoing WBD CEO David Zaslav and other executive officers tied to the merger. This was rejected by shareholders.
The rejection of the pay package is unusual and notable. WBD shareholders apparently decided that a $110 billion deal was worth supporting, but that the executives who ran the company into a position where selling was the only option did not deserve the bonuses tied to the transaction. The pay vote is non-binding, which means Zaslav will still likely be able to collect, but the rebuke has been publicly recorded.
A Long and Contentious Corporate Battle
The deal that closed with Thursday's vote was the product of a long, complicated, and often acrimonious process that began in late 2025.
The WBD board placed the company up for auction on October 21, 2025. Bidders included Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount. After a second bidding round in December 2025, Netflix's offer for WBD's Streaming and Studios unit was deemed superior, leading to an immediate acquisition agreement signed on December 5, 2025.
That Netflix deal valued WBD's streaming and studios at a reported $82.7 billion, with WBD shareholders receiving $27.75 per share.
Paramount, refusing to exit quietly, continued to agitate with a hostile tender offer that it extended several times. Multiple rounds of pressure, financial sweeteners, and competing proposals followed. Netflix's deal fell apart. WBD's board, under pressure from Paramount and its major shareholders, pivoted.
Paramount Skydance Corporation initiated a definitive agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery on February 27, 2026. Under the terms, Paramount would pay $31 per share in cash for all outstanding WBD shares — a premium that no shareholder could reasonably turn down. Paramount also agreed to pay the $2.8 billion breakup fee that WBD owed Netflix for the termination of that agreement.
The deal was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies. Shareholder votes were always the formality.
What This Merger Creates
When this deal closes — expected in Q3 2026 pending regulatory approval — it will combine:
From WBD:
- HBO and HBO Max (streaming platform)
- Warner Bros. film studio
- CNN (news network)
- TNT, TBS, Discovery Channel, and other cable networks
- DC Studios (superhero IP)
- Warner Bros. Television (producing some of the most-watched shows globally)
From Paramount Skydance:
- Paramount+ (streaming platform)
- Paramount Pictures film studio
- CBS (broadcast television network)
- MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and other cable brands
- Showtime (premium cable)
- BET Networks
The combined entity would own HBO Max, Paramount+, CBS, CNN, and the film studios behind some of the biggest franchises in entertainment history.
Streaming Consolidation: The Core Business Logic
Streaming has been a brutal business for legacy media companies.
Netflix, with 270+ million subscribers globally, generates enough revenue to fund massive content investment. Disney+ reached 150+ million subscribers. But HBO Max and Paramount+ separately have not achieved the scale needed to compete with Netflix on a standalone basis.
The merger's most obvious rationale is streaming consolidation. Combining HBO Max and Paramount+ would create a platform with significantly larger content libraries and potentially a merged subscriber base that justifies the investment required to keep competing at the top level.
David Ellison, CEO of Paramount and the driving force behind the merger, has committed to the merged streaming platform. He has also said the two companies will remain as standalone studios for creative purposes while marketing and distribution functions get consolidated to achieve efficiencies.
"30 Films a Year" — Ellison's Promise to Hollywood
One of the central anxieties around any media mega-merger is layoffs and content cuts. Mergers in the media industry have historically led to significant reductions in creative staff, cancelled projects, and diminished output.
Ellison has tried to pre-empt this with a specific commitment: Paramount and Warner will together release 30 films a year across their combined studios.
He has repeated this promise to filmmakers and to analysts. He has backed it with a 45-day theatrical window guarantee — meaning movies will be in theatres for at least 45 days before moving to streaming or physical release. This is meaningful for theatre chains and for directors who want their films to have a proper theatrical run.
Whether these commitments survive the reality of post-merger cost-cutting remains the central uncertainty.
Regulatory Path: Not Done Yet
Warner shareholders approved the deal. That is one hurdle crossed.
What remains:
- Regulatory review in the US: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust division will review the merger. The combination of CBS, CNN, HBO, and two major film studios under one company raises genuine questions about market concentration.
- Regulatory review in other countries: The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), European Commission, and other jurisdictions will conduct their own reviews.
- Expected close: Q3 2026, meaning by end of September 2026. A "ticking fee" of $0.25 per share per quarter applies if the deal has not closed by September 30, 2026.
- Breakup fee: Paramount has committed a $7 billion breakup fee if regulatory approval is not obtained.
Senator Cory Booker, who spoke publicly during the pre-vote debate period, said that "not just a corporate deal" was at stake — "but who controls news, who controls entertainment, who controls storytelling." His comments reflected broader concern about media consolidation in an environment where political ownership of media channels has real consequences for public discourse.
Who Is Financing This? Gulf Sovereign Funds
Paramount has secured financing from several sovereign investment funds — including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, as well as funds from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, per regulatory filings.
These sovereign funds will not have voting rights in a future Paramount-Warner combined company. Their investment is essentially financial — buying into the combined entity as a business bet without seeking editorial or operational control.
The involvement of Gulf sovereign funds in a company that owns CNN, CBS News, and major entertainment franchises is nonetheless politically notable. These disclosures are already drawing attention from media watchers and congressional members concerned about foreign influence in American media.
David Zaslav: Out, But Not Without His Money
David Zaslav, the WBD CEO who came to be associated with the belt-tightening, cancellation sprees, and cost cuts that defined his post-merger tenure at WBD, will leave the combined company.
Shareholders rejected the compensation measure tied to his departure — a rare and public rebuke. But because the vote was non-binding, Zaslav is still likely to receive his contractual payments.
His tenure at WBD will be debated for years. The company he ran struggled with the weight of the AT&T-Discovery merger debt, a difficult streaming transition, and multiple strategy pivots. Whether the sale to Paramount represents his failure or simply the inevitable consolidation of an industry that cannot sustain too many players is a matter of perspective.
What This Means Globally
For India, a combined Paramount-WBD entity changes the streaming landscape in ways that are still being worked through. Both HBO Max (via JioCinema/prior distribution deals) and Paramount+ (a smaller player in India) have India presence. A combined entity would likely need to renegotiate distribution agreements and could emerge as a more significant competitor to Netflix India and Disney+ Hotstar.
For Hollywood workers — writers, directors, actors, crew — the merger creates real anxiety. Two studios becoming one typically means fewer projects, fewer development deals, and fewer opportunities at the mid-budget level. The promise of 30 films a year is the reassurance. The track record of post-merger promises in Hollywood is not reassuring.
FAQs
Q1: When will the Warner Bros. Paramount merger close? The deal is expected to close in Q3 2026 (by September 30, 2026), subject to regulatory clearance from US and international authorities.
Q2: What assets does the merged company combine? The combined company will own Warner Bros. studio, HBO, HBO Max, CNN, TNT, TBS, DC Studios, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Showtime, and BET among others.
Q3: What happened with the Netflix-WBD deal? Netflix had reached an agreement in December 2025 to acquire WBD's Streaming and Studios unit for $82.7 billion at $27.75 per share. That deal fell apart, and Paramount subsequently offered a higher $31 per share cash deal which WBD's board accepted.
Q4: Who are the key people behind this merger? David Ellison (CEO of Paramount Skydance) is the driving force on the buyer side. David Zaslav, outgoing WBD CEO, was involved in negotiations. Ellison has positioned himself as an industry change-maker committed to growing content output.