Paramount Skydance boss David Ellison is scheduled to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. The news came hours after his studio raised its overall bid for Warner Bros. Discovery to $31 per share.
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham posted on X on Tuesday afternoon that Ellison would be a guest at President Trump’s speech.
Representatives for Paramount Skydance did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
Warner Bros. Discovery said in a press release Tuesday that the WBD board has “not made a decision” on whether Paramount’s offer is “better” than the deal it currently has with Netflix. If Paramount’s new bid is preferred, Netflix will “negotiate with WBD within four business days of its decision and propose modifications to the Netflix transaction.”
Netflix’s deal is worth about $83 billion between Warner Bros. studios and HBO Max alone. Paramount says it wants to sell all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its linear assets, for $112 billion. As the deal with Netflix is still in effect, the WBD board will continue to recommend the deal with the streaming giant, with a shareholder vote expected to take place on March 20th.
In addition to a $31 per share increase in purchasing power, Paramount’s latest offer also includes a 25-cent ticking fee per quarter starting Sept. 30 and a $7 billion breakup fee if the deal doesn’t pass regulatory oversight. Paramount also offered to pay Warner Bros. a $2.8 billion fee if it ends its merger with Netflix.
News of the new deal comes at the end of a seven-day negotiation period, during which Netflix allowed WBD to “seek clarity” on Paramount’s “best and final offer.”
Some believe that Paramount has an advantage in the regulatory battle with Warner Bros., since David’s father, billionaire Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump supporter. However, in a December 2025 post on Truth Social, the president departed from this theory, saying of the Ellison family, “If they are friends, I don’t want to meet them as enemies!”
“For those of you who consider me close to the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me much worse than they have ever treated me since the so-called ‘takeover,'” Trump wrote.
President Trump told NBC in early February that he believed he “shouldn’t be involved” in regulating the Warner Bros. deal, but appeared to backtrack on that position on February 21, when he demanded that Netflix fire commissioner Susan Rice “immediately” or “pay the consequences.”
“Netflix must fire President Trump’s racist and deranged Susan Rice immediately or pay the price,” Trump said. “She has no talent or skill. Purely a political hack! Her power is gone and will never return. How much is she being paid? For what? Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.”
