On April 23, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted to hand their company over to David Ellison's Paramount Skydance in a deal worth $110 billion. The vote was not close: 1.743 billion shares in favor, 16.3 million against. When the deal closes -- projected for the third quarter of 2026 -- a single family will control CBS, CNN, HBO, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, 60 Minutes, DC Comics, and Harry Potter. Larry Ellison, David's father and Oracle co-founder with a net worth north of $200 billion, also holds stakes in X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. One family. One media grid. Built in the open, with the president's blessing.
What $110 Billion Buys You
The scope of the combined company is almost too large to process. Paramount already owns CBS -- the most-watched broadcast network in America -- plus Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, BET, and 60 Minutes. With the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, the Ellisons add CNN, the most-cited cable news network in global diplomacy; HBO and Max, home to the prestige TV that shapes cultural conversation; Warner Bros. Pictures, with decades of franchise IP; TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network; and a catalogue of intellectual property that includes DC Comics characters, the Wizarding World, and Looney Tunes.
Add the family's existing stakes in X and TikTok -- both of which are news-distribution platforms commanding billions of daily users -- and you have something unprecedented: a single family with influence over what Americans watch on broadcast TV, what they stream, what shows up on their social feeds, and what passes as authoritative news from the cable dial.
The Ringer called it "terrifying tentacles." The American Prospect ran a piece titled "The Deal That Could Destroy Hollywood." More than 4,000 actors, directors, screenwriters, and producers signed an open letter opposing the merger. Democratic lawmakers formally protested. None of it stopped the vote.
The CBS Playbook: Bari Weiss and the 60 Minutes Test
If you want to understand what Ellison ownership means for the news organizations he is about to acquire, look at what already happened at CBS.
In fall 2025, David Ellison paid $150 million to acquire The Free Press -- the subscription publication founded by Bari Weiss after she resigned from The New York Times. As part of the acquisition, Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News. She reports directly to David Ellison, not to the CBS editorial chain of command.
The problems started immediately. In December 2025, Weiss delayed a 60 Minutes investigative segment titled "Inside CECOT," which examined the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center where the Trump administration has been sending deportees. She held the segment without contacting the journalist who reported it. Former CBS News veterans circulated a petition warning of "a breakdown in editorial oversight" that risks "setting a dangerous precedent in a country that has traditionally valued press freedom."
David Ellison's response: "Editorial independence will absolutely be maintained." Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, disagreed. "Ellison has already shown his cards when it comes to editorial independence," Stern told CNN, "and has zero credibility on the issue."
CNN is now asking what comes next for its own newsroom. The Columbia Journalism Review ran a piece arguing that Weiss is not capturing the media -- she is being captured by it. Either way, the template is established: buy the outlet, install a loyalist at the top, tell the staff nothing has changed.
Trump's Role in the Deal
The merger did not happen in a political vacuum. The Ellisons have been publicly friendly with Donald Trump. According to a lawsuit filed in connection with the deal, President Trump allegedly assured Larry Ellison that he would personally intervene to help Paramount win the Warner Bros. Discovery bid over competing offers.
The Department of Justice's antitrust division initially said the deal would "absolutely not" be fast-tracked for political reasons. But Paramount has since claimed that the DOJ initial review is complete, with no statutory impediment remaining. EU and UK regulators are still reviewing. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2026, pending final regulatory sign-off.
Trump has been explicit about wanting to reshape American media, calling legacy outlets enemies of the people while enabling transactions that concentrate that same media into fewer, friendlier hands. The Ellison deal is the largest single step in that consolidation to date.
The Zaslav Parachute: $550 Million for Losing Your Job
The April 23 shareholder vote had a subplot. At the same meeting where investors approved the Paramount takeover by a margin of more than 100 to 1, they voted against the exit compensation package for outgoing WBD CEO David Zaslav. The vote against it: 82 percent. The vote in favor: 17 percent.
Zaslav's package includes $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and health coverage reimbursements -- totaling roughly $550 million. Warner Bros. Discovery has also agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for IRS taxes on accelerated stock vesting.
The shareholder rebuke was "symbolic," as multiple outlets noted, because the vote is non-binding. The WBD board can pay Zaslav every cent regardless of how shareholders feel about it. A man who oversaw a company whose share price collapsed walks away with more than half a billion dollars. Shareholders can object all they want. It does not matter.
Why It Matters
There is a pattern here that goes beyond one deal, one family, or one merger. Over the past two years, the billionaire class has been buying the infrastructure of American information. Larry Ellison now controls X stakes, TikTok stakes, CBS, and soon CNN. Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. Rupert Murdoch built the original template with Fox. Patrick Soon-Shiong owns the Los Angeles Times. John Henry owns the Boston Globe. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz at a16z fund media ventures aligned with their political views.
What the Ellison deal represents is the completion of a phase: the phase where the question was who would own the news. That question now has a clearer answer. The next question -- what they do with it -- is already being answered at CBS, where a 60 Minutes investigation into a Trump-era deportation policy was held without explanation.
The same shareholders who voted 99-to-1 to approve the Paramount takeover voted 82-to-1 against Zaslav's golden parachute. Both votes produced the same outcome. One family gets the empire. The executive who built it for them gets $550 million. The shareholders get $31 a share and a non-binding say on everything else.
That is the arrangement. It has now been voted into law.
Sources
- Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve $110B merger with Paramount Skydance -- NPR
- Warner Bros Shareholders Approve Paramount Merger, Vote Against Zaslav Pay Package -- Variety
- David Zaslav Merger Payout Approved By Just 17% Of WBD Shareholders; 82% Opposed -- Deadline
- Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount takeover -- CNN
- With Paramount's winning WBD bid, David and Larry Ellison are amassing a media empire -- CNN
- Bari Weiss named editor-in-chief of CBS News as Paramount acquires The Free Press -- CBS News
- What does the Paramount-WBD merger mean for CNN? -- CNN
- Bari Weiss is not capturing the media. She is being captured. -- Columbia Journalism Review
- Trump Gets More Power as Warner Bros. Agrees to Merge With Paramount -- The New Republic
- The Deal That Could Destroy Hollywood -- The American Prospect
- The Terrifying Tentacles of Paramount's Media Empire -- The Ringer
- The Ellisons Empire: Media Consolidation, Narrative Control, and the Threat to Democracy -- Nonprofit Quarterly
