Paramount's pursuit of WBD raises big questions about billionaire control of major media conglomerates. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for one, has been raising her voice about potential consumer harms if Paramount prevails in buying WBD.
As you already know, David Ellison's ambitions are bolstered by his father Larry, who currently ranks as the second richest man in the world. Together they are "building an unprecedented media empire," as The Washington Post put it earlier this month.
And Trump is cheering them on. "They're friends of mine. They're big supporters of mine," the president said recently.
Paramount is leveraging this relationship in its pursuit of WBD. "Trump's implicit support for the deal is their number one talking point," the person involved in the negotiations said. Paramount insiders refute that, noting that Ellison made many pro-deal arguments in a letter to WBD's board that the NYT obtained and described yesterday.
"We are confident that we are the best partner for WBD," Ellison wrote, "with a combination of our two companies creating a scaled Hollywood champion to the benefit of both our companies' shareholders, consumers and the entertainment industry at large."
But it's impossible to ignore the Trump factor here. Ellison has "got Donald Trump in his corner," the NY Post's Charlie Gasparino wrote yesterday. When veteran media reporter Tim Baysinger wrote with chagrin that "M&A is now solely based on whether or not the President likes you," Gasparino replied on X, "this is funny and kinda true."
Wall Street analysts have cast doubt on Comcast as a suitor for WBD for a similar reason. "The problem is regulatory. Or, if you prefer, political. Leaving aside any legitimate concerns about further consolidation of, say, the studio business, the real issue here is that Comcast is badly disfavored by the current administration," Craig Moffett said in a note to clients earlier this week.
But just to complicate this story further, keep in mind that US regulators are not the only ones to consider. Paramount would face regulatory scrutiny in the UK, EU and some countries in Latin America. The perception that Trump is clearing the way for the Ellisons in the US could hurt them in other markets.
