Ellison Should Abandon WBD Battle

David Ellison just can’t get any respect. The son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison and CEO of Paramount Skydance is going nowhere in his efforts to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of HBO Max, Warner Bros. Studio and a bunch of cable channels including CNN. Ellison has a very persuasive argument that his $30 a share offer—$108 billion in total—is better for WBD shareholders than what Netflix is offering for just part of the company, as he pointed out today. So far his arguments haven’t swayed WBD’s board, which has agreed to sell to Netflix. Ellison might want to consider that he’d be better off losing this one.

After all, if Ellison got his wish, he’d increase Paramount’s exposure to what is fast becoming the dregs of Hollywood: the steadily shrinking cable channel business. Paramount’s TV media segment, which includes cable and broadcast channels, suffered a 12% revenue drop in the third quarter. WBD’s cable channels similarly saw their revenue drop 12.6% in the first nine months of last year. NBCUniversal, meanwhile, late last year reported that revenue from a group of its cable channels—including CNBC, USA and SyFy—would shrink 6% in 2025 and between 3% and 7% in 2026. NBCUniversal spun out those channels into a new company called Versant last Friday and investors have so far turned their noses up at it. Since Versant stock started trading on Monday, it has fallen 25%.