David Ellison Reportedly Promised Trump ‘Sweeping Changes’ at CNN If Paramount Takes Over Warner Bros.

Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison has reportedly told Trump administration officials that he would implement “sweeping changes” at CNN should he succeed in acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, the cable news network’s parent company.

After Warner Bros. accepted an offer to purchase it from Netflix, Ellison announced that Paramount would attempt to pull off a hostile takeover by presenting shareholders with its own bid.

“WBD shareholders deserve an opportunity to consider our superior all-cash offer for their shares in the entire company,” said Ellison in a statement. “Our public offer, which is on the same terms we provided to the Warner Bros. Discovery Board of Directors in private, provides superior value, and a more certain and quicker path to completion.”

“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process,” continued Ellison. “We are taking our offer directly to shareholders to give them the opportunity to act in their own best interests and maximize the value of their shares.”

Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, called President Donald Trump after the announcement that Warner Bros. had accepted the Netflix deal to argue that “the transaction would hurt competition,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

Perhaps more interesting still, the Journal reported that “During a visit to Washington in recent days, David Ellison offered assurances to Trump administration officials that if he bought Warner, he’d make sweeping changes to CNN, a common target of President Trump’s ire, people familiar with the matter said.”

“Trump has told people close to him that he wants new ownership of CNN as well as changes to CNN programming,” added the Journal story.

Trump has long considered CNN enemy territory. In a rant on the White House lawn earlier this year, he derided the network as “scum.”

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!