Paramount Skydance, led by David Ellison, has been relentlessly pursuing an acquisition deal for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for over five months, despite WBD's consistent rejection of its overtures. WBD's board of directors has rebuffed Paramount's attempts eight times, remaining steadfast in its commitment to an industry-altering $83 billion merger pact with Netflix.

Ellison's persistence is evident in Paramount Skydance's recent actions, including extending the deadline for its hostile $30-a-share all-cash offer for WBD to February 20. Concurrently, Paramount officially urged Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders to vote against WBD’s amended all-cash deal with Netflix at a special meeting of stockholders scheduled for April. This aggressive strategy, however, has been sharply dismissed by Warner Bros. Discovery, which stated that over 93% of its shareholders have rejected Paramount's "inferior scheme." Sources close to Paramount Skydance, including its financial backers like David's multibillionaire father Larry Ellison, indicate that the company is currently not prepared to increase its offer beyond $30 a share, an amount already significantly higher than its initial $19-a-share proposal.

David Ellison's "disrupt-and-delay" strategy appears to be rooted in a genuine belief that Paramount can still secure WBD. This approach is engineered around the critical possibility that regulatory bodies in the United States or Europe, or even President Trump, might block the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal outright or impose onerous conditions. Such intervention would potentially clear a path for Paramount's rival offer. Joseph Kalmenovitz, assistant professor of finance at the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester, notes that Paramount's tactics are effectively "buying time for negotiations, raising the costs for rejecting the deal and signaling commitment" to acquiring WBD.

Legal experts further highlight the potential for political influence. Columbia Law School professor Reilly Steel suggests that Paramount Skydance is hoping President Trump will direct the Department of Justice (DOJ) to block the Netflix-WB merger, asserting that "Trump does not care about traditional norms of presidential noninterference with individual enforcement decisions." Beyond presidential intervention, the Justice Department or other regulatory authorities could build a plausible case for blocking Netflix’s takeover of WB’s TV and film studios and HBO Max. This concern stems from the potential for the combined entity to significantly reinforce Netflix’s dominance in the streaming market. Paramount estimates that Netflix and HBO Max together would command an estimated 43% share of the global subscription streaming market.

The proposed merger has also drawn scrutiny from politicians across the political spectrum. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) publicly labeled the deal an "anti-monopoly nightmare." Similarly, Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, warned of "a lot of antitrust red flags" and predicted an "intense antitrust hearing in the Senate." Indeed, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. Discovery chief strategy officer Bruce Campbell are slated to testify before a Senate antitrust hearing on February 3, titled “Examining the Competitive Impact of the Proposed Netflix-Warner Brothers Transaction.” Makan Delrahim, Paramount’s chief legal officer and former head of the DOJ’s antitrust division during Trump’s first term, echoed these concerns, rhetorically questioning how the deal could even emerge from boardrooms, comparing Netflix to "the new-age digital version" of Standard Oil due to its extensive movie-output deals and the potential addition of WB’s sizable library.

Despite this significant regulatory and political saber-rattling, Netflix and WBD maintain their confidence, asserting that they have conducted thorough due diligence and are certain their pact will receive regulatory approval. Their defense hinges on how broadly the combined entity's competitive set is defined. Netflix argues that its competition encompasses "everything on TV," not exclusively streaming services. The company highlights that its share of overall TV viewing time remains less than 10% in all major markets and claims that even with the addition of WB, it would still trail YouTube in the U.S. In a clear message to both regulators and investors, Netflix affirmed in its Q4 shareholder letter: "We relish competition and work to earn more of consumers’ attention." Ultimately, David Ellison’s challenging bid for WBD, and his bet on regulatory intervention, will be determined by the outcome of these ongoing antitrust considerations.