By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The battle for ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery took another twist on Monday. Paramount made a hostile bid to acquire WBD on Monday. The move was made after WBD announced Friday that Netflix had won a bidding process that included Paramount and Comcast. Netflix offered to acquire Warner Bros. Studios and HBO Max for $72 billion. The Paramount cash offer is for the entirety of WBD, including the TNT and TBS cable networks, for $108.4 billion.
Read more at Variety.com.
Powell’s POV: The Paramount offer is backed by funding from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi, and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners investment company. Kushner is the son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump, who stated over the weekend that Netflix acquiring WBD “could be a problem,” while adding that he would be involved in determining whether the Netflix deal is approved. Trump lashed out at Paramount today on social media over a Marjorie Taylor Greene interview that aired on Sunday’s 60 Minutes (read more at Deadline.com).
There’s no telling what it would mean for AEW if Netflix or Paramount ends up in partial or total control of its media rights partner, WBD. Netflix is the domestic streaming home for WWE Raw and all WWE events internationally. Paramount does not have any programming deals with WWE, but it is the new media rights partner for TKO-owned UFC and PBR.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
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