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The long battle over control of Warner Bros. Discovery took another turn Monday when Paramount Skydance announced a hostile bid for the entertainment giant, following Warner’s acceptance of a competing offer from Netflix last week. Paramount, which many once deemed the frontrunner in the original bidding war, announced a tender offer that tops the Netflix bid by $2.25 per share, appealing directly to shareholders. That adds another layer of complexity to the deal, which will see a significant consolidation of Hollywood’s power players, no matter who ends up on top. With all the back and forth, it’s easy to have lost track of who’s proposing what. Here’s a rundown of what you need to know. What is Paramount Skydance offering for Warner Bros. Discovery? Monday’s bid, the sixth by Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), is the same one the company made in the close bidding process, it says. Paramount is offering $30 cash per share to acquire the totality of WBD, including the broadcast and cable networks, the HBO Max streaming service and the company’s extensive catalog. That works out to $18 billion more in cash than the Netflix offer. “We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood,” said David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance in a statement. “It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry. We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.” Who is funding Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery? While not mentioned in its press release, Paramount’s SEC filing about its tender offer noted that beyond the money that’s being supplied by the Ellison family, the deal will be partially financed by sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar. In addition, Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner, is part of the bid. Paramount said each of those parties “have agreed to forgo any governance rights — including board representation — associated with their non-voting equity investments.” However, having Trump’s son-in-law as part of an offer in a deal where Trump has already said “Ill be involved in that decision” raises several potential conflicts of interest. What was Netflix’s offer for Warner Bros. Discovery? In the Netflix deal, which was announced last Friday, the streamer agreed to pay $27.75 per share for the film studio and streaming divisions of WBD, putting the deal price at $82.7 billion. Netflix’s bid was mostly cash, with some Netflix stock included. Shareholders, under those terms, would receive $23.25 in cash and about $4.50 in Netflix stock per share. WBD, under that deal, would still spin off its TV networks, including CNN and TNT, into a separate company. How long do Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have to decide which offer to take? Paramount says its offer will expire at 5:00 p.m. ET on Jan. 8, 2026. That could be extended, however, Why did Warner Bros. Discovery choose Netflix’s offer instead of Paramount’s? The announcement of the Netflix deal on Friday talked about complementary strengths and assets, more value for shareholders, and more opportunities for the creative community. You might expect that sort of language in a merger agreement, especially one that faces a tough regulatory fight. With Paramount’s tender offer, though, Paramount will be required to make a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, explaining in further detail why it chose Netflix and rejected Paramount. Prior to the Friday announcement, Ellison, in a leaked letter, discussed what he called a tilted and unfair process in the bidding, suggesting WBD management viewed Netflix more favorably than it did Paramount. Which proposed deal has a better chance of passing review by the Federal Trade Commission? Netflix’s proposed takeover of HBO Max and the WBD catalog had been flagged by several experts as facing an uphill battle in Washington and possibly other parts of the world. On Friday, Trump himselfsaid Netflix also owning HBO Max “could be a problem.” That doesn’t mean the deal would necessarily be stopped, though. There is plenty of time for both sides to make concessions with regulators (a close date hasn’t even been announced). There will be a lot of work, however. Paramount, though, says it would be able to clear regulatory scrutiny quickly. (Larry Ellison, father of CEO David Ellison, is very close with Trump.) “Paramount is highly confident in achieving expeditious regulatory clearance for its proposed offer, as it enhances competition and is pro-consumer, while creating a strong champion for creative talent and consumer choice,” it wrote. “In contrast, the Netflix transaction is predicated on the unrealistic assumption that its anticompetitive combination with WBD, which would entrench its monopoly with a 43% share of global Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) subscribers, could withstand multiple protracted regulatory challenges across the world.” Will Warner Bros. Discovery films still be released to theaters? The impact of a Netflix-WBD deal on theatrical releases is one of the big unknowns. Netflix would honor commitments previously made by Warner Bros. Discovery, but things are murkier from there as to whether it would release films in theaters before putting them on the streaming service. Paramount Skydance, via David Ellison on CNBC, said it would put 30 movies exclusively in theaters each year.
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E-Commerce
The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump‘s birthday next year which also happens to be Flag Day but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth. The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name, and legacy. Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth which is June 19 but not June 14, Trump’s birthday. The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors. The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelts birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25). Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays. Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend. The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven, Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy. Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks. That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system. Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up, Brengel said. Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldnt be. Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy. The President didnt just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans struggle for civil rights and freedom, said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. Our country deserves better. A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes. Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans. Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forward for the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him. Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill. David Klepper, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
IBM announced on Monday it is acquiring Confluent for $11 billion, sending shares of the data streaming platform up about 29% in morning trading. By midday trading, at the time of this writing, Confluent (NasdaqGS: CFLT) stock was holding steady, up 29%. International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) stock was up about 1.5%. Confluent provides a leading open-source enterprise data streaming platform that connects, processes, and governs reusable and reliable data and events in real time, foundational for the deployment of artificial intelligence. The deal is an example of how IBM is actively engaging in the increasingly competitive, high-stakes AI arms race that’s now dominating technology companies. Why is this a big deal? The deal is one of the largest in recent memory for IBM, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company is paying $31 a share for Confluent in an all-cash deal. Confluent will continue to operate as a distinct brand and business within IBM after the close of the deal (which is subject to regulatory approval). “Data is at the heart of what companies need to do to harness AI, modernize their operations, and build the next generation of applications; and Confluent is at the heart of what companies need to harness their data,” Confluent CEO Jay Kreps said in a statement. “IBM sees the same future we doone in which enterprises run on continuous, event-driven intelligence, with data moving freely and reliably across every part of the business.” IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications, and APIs [application programming interfaces], IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in a press release. With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI. IBM financials At the time of this writing midday Monday, IBM had a market capitalization of $292.12 billion, while Confluent had a $10.44 billion market cap. For the third quarter of 2025, IBM beat Wall Street’s estimates for both revenue and earnings per share (EPS). Its AI book of business surpassed $9.5 billion, up from $7.5 billion during the second quarter.
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