Warner Bros. shareholders overwhelmingly voted to approve a major deal that would merge the old Hollywood juggernaut with Paramount Skydance, a mass media conglomerate headed by a close ally of President Donald Trump.
So close are they, in fact, that Paramount CEO David Ellison is reportedly set to “honor” the president at an “intimate” dinner on Thursday evening, just as Trump’s administration is weighing whether or not to approve the $110 billion takeover. Two nights later, a pair of top Trump administration staffers — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller — will be Ellison’s guests at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, attending with CBS News, which Paramount owns.
David Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, is the sixth-richest person in the world and a major Republican donor. Trump has called the father-son duo “friends of mine” and “big supporters of mine.”
Together, the Ellisons wield enormous power over American politics and mass media. Their influence will grow further now that shareholders have approved this new deal, which is expected to be finalized later this year.
Thanks to this and earlier dealmaking, the Ellisons will soon perch atop a mountain of networks, studios and platforms that include:
