US President Trump speaks at a press conference at the White House on January 20, 2026. (Kevin Dickey/Getty Images)
As Paramount Pictures steps up its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, a high-stakes political battle is playing out behind the scenes.
A person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly said Paramount’s latest offer increased its previous bid of $30 per share and valued it at $108 billion. Details of the revised proposal, first reported by Bloomberg, were not immediately available.
The company is leveraging the dynastic wealth of Larry Ellison’s empire and his ties to the Trump administration to scrap Netflix’s $82.7 billion deal to acquire rival Warner Bros., which owns CNN, HBO and Hollywood’s top film and television studios, according to people familiar with the matter.
Over the weekend, President Trump ramped up pressure on Netflix to “immediately” fire Susan Rice, a former Obama and Biden administration official and a member of Netflix’s 13-member board, or face “the consequences.”
In a social media post on Saturday night, Trump called the former ambassador “insane…she has no talent or skills – a pure political hack!”
Trump has previously said he would not participate in the crucial Warner Bros. auction, instead leaving the matter to the Justice Department, which is investigating whether a Netflix acquisition or an alternative acquisition by Paramount would harm competition. Trump has been an outspoken critic of CNN and its many on-air hosts.
Netflix won a bid to acquire the storied studio and HBO in December, prompting rejected Paramount executives to launch a multi-pronged strategy to scuttle the Netflix deal.
Netflix co-chief executive Ted Sarandos tried to downplay the latest controversy, telling the BBC in an interview on Monday: “This is a business deal, not a political deal.”
But Paramount, which declined to comment for this article, isn’t shy about playing the political card.
Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The company, which is overseen by Larry Ellison’s son David, is trying to convince Justice Department regulators and Warner Bros. shareholders that the Netflix deal is too risky and that they should side with Paramount, said sources who were not authorized to comment publicly.
Paramount tried many strategies to gain the upper hand.
“This deal was never going to be decided on the merits of the offer or strict antitrust considerations,” said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. “This is a classic Trump administration deal where proximity to the president was more important than financial terms.”
Trump’s outburst Saturday night came after Rice said in a podcast interview last week that businesses, media and law firms that “bend the knee” to Trump “will not end well” if Democrats regain control in Washington.
The comments from Rice, who served as a Netflix director for eight years, come as Paramount-owned CBS is locked in a high-profile feud with late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert over Trump’s FCC chairman’s threat to change a rule requiring broadcasters to give equal time to political candidates. Colbert accused his company of kowtowing to Trump, which CBS denied.
Netflix’s Sarandos and Paramount’s David Ellison each made the trek to the White House.
In October, Paramount hired Makan Delrahim, a former Trump administration official who oversaw the Justice Department’s antitrust division during Trump’s first term, to quarterback Paramount’s campaign to win over regulators and politicians.
A powerful ally — Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz — recently visited Delrahim at the Paramount Melrose Avenue lot in Los Angeles. While there, Cruz said he was a fan of the CBS show “NCIS,” which prompted Paramount executives to organize an impromptu “NCIS Origins” studio tour, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Read more: Stephen Colbert, Trump and what makes broadcasters nervous
In December, Delrahim made a strategic move by asking the Department of Justice to approve the Paramount deal — despite not signing an agreement with the Warner Bros. board and obtaining shareholder approval. The strategy was designed to speed up the agency’s approval if the Netflix deal fell through. Warner shareholders are expected to vote on March 20.
Last week, Paramount announced that a major deadline had passed without objection from the Justice Department. “There are no statutory impediments to consummating Paramount’s proposed acquisition of WBD in the United States,” Paramount said in a regulatory filing.
Paramount faced a separate deadline late Monday to improve the financials of its proposed acquisition in a bid to sway support from Warner Bros. Discovery board members for the Netflix deal.
Paramount wants to acquire all of Warner Bros.’ Discovery Channel, including CNN.
Read more: Paramount prepares to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. What went wrong?
Netflix, by contrast, doesn’t want most cable channels other than HBO and has made an offer of $27.75 per share. It has the right to match any improved Paramount proposal.
Warner is planning to spin off most of its channel portfolio, including HGTV, TBS and Cartoon Network, into a separate company. Its shareholders will receive shares in the entity, which will be named Discovery Global.
Concerns about the Netflix deal are growing.
Justice Department regulators have sent inquiries to the three companies, said an executive who was not authorized to speak publicly. The unit is said to be looking at Netflix’s historic business strategy of releasing most of its movies to its streaming platform, often bypassing movie theaters. Sarandos promised to reserve 45 days for the Warner Bros. movie.
Bloomberg reports that regulators are also trying to determine whether Netflix exerts leverage over creators in negotiations when it acquires shows to build its catalog.
Republican lawmakers lashed out at Sarandos this month during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee, which was set up to explore the antitrust implications of the Warner Bros. sale. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Netflix a series of pointed follow-up questions, including: “What impact will the merger have on future competition if allowed to proceed?”
Ted Sarandos (left) and David Zaslav at the 2026 Golden Globe Awards. (Alan J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The hearing also turned to the culture wars, with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., suggesting Netflix was promoting “transgender ideology” to children, something Sarandos denied.
Another Missouri Republican, Sen. Eric Schmitt, accused Netflix of producing some of the “most shocking content in the history of the world.”
“Netflix does not have a political agenda of any kind,” Sarandos told lawmakers.
David Ellison was also invited to attend the February 3 hearing, but declined, causing dissatisfaction among some panel members.
David Ellison, founder and CEO of Skydance Media and leader of Paramount Pictures, will open in New York in 2023. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker questioned Ellison’s failure to answer questions from lawmakers under oath, including about his dealings with the president.
Ellison later issued a statement in response, but Booker and other lawmakers wrote back that Ellison’s statement “failed to address” the issues raised by Booker.
“This pattern of evasive behavior, coupled with Paramount’s apparent belief that politically sensitive transactions will be approved without difficulty, warrants rigorous scrutiny,” Booker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others wrote in a Feb. 19 letter.
Democrats directed Ellison to “preserve records related to the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal.”
The news comes days after the firing of Justice Department antitrust chief Gail Slater, who reportedly became a thorn in the side of some business interests. Slater, whose former top deputy also left the Justice Department, publicly warned that antitrust decisions were influenced by corporate lobbyists and were not in the interests of ordinary Americans.
“We see this happen over and over again,” USC’s Kahn said.
“Let’s not forget that Larry Ellison’s Oracle is part of the consortium buying TikTok’s U.S. operations,” Kahn said. “The Ellison regime has taken note of the FCC’s multiple complaints about CBS content.” He added: “That’s the reality of trying to do any business in the Trump administration: It’s about returns and proximity.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
