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Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted by a wide margin on Thursday to approve the company's acquisition by Paramount Skydance, clearing a critical hurdle in what would become one of the largest media consolidations in Hollywood history.
The preliminary vote count from a special shareholder meeting showed overwhelming support for the deal. Final results are subject to certification by the company's independent inspector of elections and will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
Paramount said in a statement that the shareholder approval "marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery," adding that the company looks forward to closing the deal and "realizing the creation of a next-generation media and entertainment company."
The path to Thursday's vote was far from straightforward. Paramount announced on Dec. 8, 2025, that it had offered to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery for $30 per share in cash, implying a total enterprise value of $108.4 billion. The bid came just days after Netflix announced its own agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery on Dec. 5, valuing the company at $72 billion in equity, or roughly $82.7 billion in enterprise value.
Despite the Warner Bros. Discovery board initially backing the Netflix deal, Paramount returned in February with a revised offer of $31 per share, which WBD management accepted as a superior proposal. Netflix declined to raise its bid and withdrew from the contest.
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The competition came to a head on Feb. 27, when the Netflix agreement was formally terminated. Paramount Skydance paid a $2.8 billion termination fee and a definitive merger agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery was announced the same day. The $31-per-share offer represented a roughly 147 percent premium to WBD's stock price before the bidding war began.
The deal would hand Paramount Skydance, which already controls CBS, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon, ownership of WBD's portfolio, including HBO, HBO Max, the Warner Bros. film and television studios, CNN, TNT, TBS, DC, HGTV and Discovery+.
While shareholder approval removes a key condition, the transaction still requires clearance from U.S. regulators, including the Department of Justice. Media mergers of this scale have historically drawn close antitrust scrutiny.
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