The corporate boardroom saga currently playing out between Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), and Netflix rivals any Succession script.
This story has everything. Hostile takeovers, leaked documents, a billionaire father funding his son’s ambitions, and a desperate attempt to attract younger audiences.
Project Eagle: the TikTokification of TV
Start with the latest plot twist. David Ellison continues to force a $30-per-share all-cash buyout on the WBD board. Meanwhile, leaked internal docs reveal his “tech-forward” vision for Paramount+ mirrors TikTok.
Executives call the initiative ‘Project Eagle.’ It aims to flood Paramount+ with short-form, user-generated content (UGC). Business Insider reports that leadership wants a “million clips” on the platform.
They presumably hope to distract subscribers watching Yellowstone reruns as traditional TV continues to lose customers and social video rises.
Larry And David Ellison are all about the TikTok-ification
Ellison is fighting to acquire the prestigious Warner Bros. studio but also aspires to the algorithmic chaos of a scrolling dopamine trap. Maybe this makes perfect sense.
His father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, recently bought a significant portion of TikTok’s US business. Nothing defines synergy like turning The Godfather into a 15-second soundbite.
The Netflix flirtation
Meanwhile, the WBD board clutches a complicated proposal from Netflix and ignores Ellison’s cash bouquet. Netflix offers a mix of cash and stock and the deal involves offloading WBD’s declining linear networks into a debt-heavy ‘Discovery Global’ spinoff.
The board apparently finds this structure more attractive than Ellison’s straight $108.4 billion enterprise valuation.
Hostile takeovers and lawsuits
Ellison has taken the rejection poorly. And Paramount Skydance has extended its tender offer deadline to February 20, 2026, in true hostile takeover fashion.
They also filed suit in Delaware to force WBD to show its math. Paramount argues that WBD’s board hides the true value of the Netflix deal to protect their own interests. Paramount is even preparing to nominate a new slate of directors to stage a coup at the next annual meeting.
WBD’s David Zaslav, has a lot on his plate
The final cut
The industry watches a spectacle of epic proportions. WBD shareholders must choose between a complex divorce settlement with Netflix or a shotgun wedding with the Ellisons.
One side offers the original disruptor acting as an establishment saviour.
The other offers Oracle money and a promise to serve UGC clips between episodes of Landman.
As the February deadline looms, the future of our media diet looks increasingly like a content stew served by billionaires fighting over the ladle.
Stay tuned. The season finale will cost a fortune.