David Ellison, the chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance, skirted inquiries regarding a potential bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. However, he did suggest there are “a lot” of mergers and acquisitions possibilities available.
During his appearance at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles on Thursday, Ellison refrained from confirming if Paramount had made an offer for WBD, highlighting his role at a publicly traded company. “We are not in a position to discuss rumors or any forms of speculation,” he stated.
Nonetheless, he shared insights to help clarify their perspective. Ellison observed that “ironically,” last year, Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO, David Zaslav remarked on the significance of media consolidation in the industry.
“I genuinely believe there are numerous options on the table that could be actionable in the near term,” Ellison stated. Any acquisition efforts by Paramount Skydance would primarily aim to enhance content generation, he mentioned.
“More content is essential for increasing audience engagement,” he explained. “Thus, we are keen to engage in producing “more films and television shows” to achieve greater scale and engagement. “From that angle, our main goal is to ensure long-term value creation.” (Ellison chose not to provide further details on other M&A “options” that may exist.)
Reports emerged last month indicating that Ellison, along with his financial associates, including his father, software billionaire Larry Ellison, were considering a bid for the complete acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance reportedly aims to make a move for WBD ahead of the latter’s planned division into two separate entities in the spring of 2026: Warner Bros. (HBO Max and studios) and Discovery Global (TV networks and Discovery+).
Separately, in the two months following the closure of the Skydance-Paramount deal, Ellison has been actively making key hires and securing substantial agreements.
This week, Paramount announced its intent to acquire The Free Press, a conservative-leaning digital outlet founded by Bari Weiss. As part of the estimated $150 million transaction, Weiss has been appointed editor in chief of CBS News, tasked with helping to ensure that CBS’s reporting remains relevant, accessible, and above all, trusted in the new media landscape, according to Ellison’s communication with staff.
“Our objective in news is to become the most trusted source in media,” Ellison commented, explaining the rationale for the Free Press acquisition. “It’s not controversial to say that the current state of civil discourse is lacking,” he continued, expressing a desire to connect with the 70% of the audience identifying as either center-left or center-right. He conveyed great “respect and admiration” for CBS News and “60 Minutes,” while also stating that CBS News lacks a coherent digital strategy and that the Free Press will act as an “accelerator” for developing a direct-to-consumer news model.
Ellison mentioned that the “values” of the Free Press are in harmony with CBS News’ legacy, asserting that Paramount’s progress in delivering balanced and fair news should be evaluated over time. “We’ll need to show every single day that we’re genuinely deserving of people’s trust,” he remarked.
Ellison’s remarks came during an interview with Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, who pointed out that he and Weiss share a robust support for Israel. In response to a movement by a multitude of industry professionals who pledged not to collaborate with Israeli film organizations as a protest against the war in Gaza, Paramount issued a statement asserting, “We do not concur with recent attempts to boycott Israeli filmmakers. Silencing individual creative talents based on their nationality does not foster better understanding or progress the cause of peace” — a statement that Ellison affirmed during his Thursday comments. The Sept. 12 announcement faced backlash from about 30 employees who sent a letter to Ellison and other senior executives condemning the company for aligning with “a genocide in Gaza and of the Palestinian people.” Ellison responded, “We firmly believe in the First Amendment. They are entirely entitled to their perspective. We are entitled to ours.”
When asked why he and his father opted not to take Paramount private, David Ellison responded, “We perceive that there is actually greater value and opportunity in remaining a public company compared to being private.” He also addressed Oracle’s partial ownership of TikTok via a deal with the Trump administration, stating that discussions regarding how TikTok would interface with Paramount Skydance (with Larry Ellison being the largest shareholder) have not arisen.
This fall, Ellison and his management team are projected to lay off approximately 2,000 employees at the newly merged Paramount Skydance as part of efforts to cut over $2 billion in expenses. Ellison mentioned that Paramount is working on integrating three streaming platforms — Paramount+, Pluto TV, and BET+ — onto a single technology stack, a move expected to reduce costs and enhance content recommendations.
In the nine weeks since the Paramount-Skydance merger concluded, Ellison claimed the team has “revitalized the content engines of the company.” He highlighted Paramount’s $7.7 billion agreement with the UFC (which will provide “year-round” sports content), its collaboration with Activision to produce a “Call of Duty” film, the recent acquisition of the Free Press, and Paramount Pictures’ partnership for distributing “High Side,” featuring Timothée Chalamet and directed by James Mangold.
Regarding OpenAI’s Sora 2, which has faced criticism from within Hollywood for its capability to generate high-quality content from copyrighted materials, Ellison asserted that “Copyright protection is essential for the outputs produced by those businesses,” adding that the industry must embrace technology. He emphasized the importance of entertainment companies to responsibly adopt AI as a “tool for artists”: “We’re going to lean towards collaborating with this technology to ensure it’s beneficial for artists.”
Ellison’s recent high-profile appointments at Paramount include chief product officer Dane Glasgow, formerly of Meta’s Facebook as VP of product management, and chief legal officer Makan Delrahim, who provided counsel to Skydance during its acquisition of Paramount Global and formerly led the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division during Trump’s first term. Earlier on Thursday, the company announced the addition of Jay Askinasi, previously Roku’s top advertising executive, as chief revenue officer.
