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The Ellison Takeover Whisper Theater

It’s been nearly a month since news broke that Paramount Skydance was considering a bid for Warner Bros. Discovery—a fraught period that has allowed analysts and veteran Wall Street hands to opine, publicly and privately, on the potential deal and whether it should go the distance.

Larry Ellison, David Ellison
The days of the Highly Confident letter are long gone, so it would be idiotic for the Ellisons to proceed to bid for WBD without the financing lined up. Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
October 5, 2025

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There’s now been nearly a month of eerie silence since The Wall Street Journal published the leaked news about Paramount Skydance’s planned takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery—an eternity of inactivity in Wall Street M&A terms. I’m told that WBD C.E.O. David Zaslav has hired Goldman Sachs and the Ellisons have hired Blair Effron at Centerview—serious M&A firepower—and yet, as the weeks pass with no further announcements, questions have inevitably been raised about the likelihood of a deal.