Warner Bros Discovery stock surges after WSJ Paramount report

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) stocks surged 33% on Thursday following reports on Wall Street Journal That is the target of Paramount Pictures’ acquisition.

Rumors are not new, and speculation has been circling in Hollywood for months. but, journal Following the $8.4 billion merger with SkyDance Studios, Paramount’s 42-year-old new chairman and CEO David Ellison has reported that he is preparing a bid to acquire all his WBDs.

WBD CEO David Zaslav said this week that he hopes to split it into the previously announced Warner Bros Streaming and Studios Business in April 2026 and into Discovery Global Housing Global Networks.

The Paramount and WBD merger requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission and is expensive. The stock surge on Thursday raised WBD’s market capitalization to around $400 billion, with debt of $35 billion.

Larry Ellison, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Ellison’s father, is said to be worthy of the $380 billion region and can provide funding for the merger. He bankrolled the acquisition of Paramount, which had roughly $6 billion, with Redbird Capital rising $2 billion.

The Paramount WBD merger raises eyebrows as Hollywood creatives remove studio buyers from the equation, leaving four legacy studios, including Disney, Universal and Sony.

Ellison expresses his love of creating theatrical entertainment, but the driving force behind his focus seems firmly on building a modern studio with streaming and technology in mind. The merger brings Paramount+ and currently available HBO Max under one banner, potentially challenging Netflix.

That may take some time. The latter global subscription exceeds 300m, but Paramount+ reached 77.7m, according to its second quarter revenue report in late July. HBO Max reached 125.7m per second quarter revenue in late June. Zaslav said this week that he expected that number to reach 150m next year.

This week, Paramount hired former meta-executive Dane Glasgow as Chief Product Officer.