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O Warner Brothers, Where Art Thou?

The WBD board has reopened the bidding war, granting Paramount Skydance a final window to submit its best offer. But is Larry Ellison really prepared to backstop what Ted Sarandos & Co. are mocking as “the largest proposed leveraged buyout in history”?

Larry Ellison
WBD now wants Larry Ellison to agree to put more equity in the deal at closing, if needed, to ensure there’s enough debt financing available, just in case the PSKY banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, and (my favorite) Apollo—balk at the current deal. Photo: Stephen Lam/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
February 18, 2026

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Early Tuesday morning, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it was—once again—opening up its sale process. After sharing the interesting tidbit that Paramount Skydance had increased its bid by a buck per share, to $31, and was prepared to go higher, the WBD board announced that the company was giving PSKY until Monday to cough up its “best and final” offer. This was great news for WBD shareholders, especially since Netflix has the right to match or exceed PSKY’s umpteenth revised bid. If all goes according to plan, this will all get hashed out at a special shareholder meeting on March 20. “I just believe when all is said and done, a board generally gets to the right place, even in situations where they hate you,” explained one person close to the PSKY side of the equation.