The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has approved Paramount Skydance’s $110.9 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, removing one of the last significant regulatory barriers standing between Hollywood and its largest-ever corporate marriage.
The deal, announced on February 27, 2026, values WBD shares at $31 each in cash. It would create a media behemoth projected to generate roughly $70 billion in annual revenue, with an estimated EBITDA of $16 billion and a combined streaming subscriber base of 207 million across HBO Max, Paramount+, and CNN’s digital platforms.
The regulatory gauntlet
The CMA’s review process has been multi-phased, with a phase 2 review wrapping up around June 9, 2026. A phase 3 due diligence deadline is set for August 7, 2026, and reports suggest the UK culture secretary could still intervene on public interest grounds related to media plurality.
The US Department of Justice granted antitrust clearance on June 12, 2026. WBD shareholders had already voted to approve the transaction on April 23, 2026.
Netflix had previously explored acquiring WBD in a deal valued at approximately $82.7 to $83 billion. Paramount Skydance ultimately outbid that interest by a substantial margin.
Before the acquisition materialized, WBD had also explored splitting itself into separate companies. That plan was ultimately scrapped.
What investors should actually watch
The phase 3 CMA deadline of August 7, 2026, is the next milestone that matters. If the UK culture secretary decides to intervene on media plurality grounds, it could delay or complicate the deal’s completion, though outright blocking seems unlikely given the DOJ clearance and shareholder approval already secured.
For traditional equity investors, the combined entity’s ability to hit that $16 billion EBITDA target will be the key metric to track post-merger.
The absence of any cryptocurrency or blockchain component in a $110.9 billion transaction is itself a data point. It suggests that despite years of industry chatter about tokenized IP rights, blockchain-based royalty tracking, and decentralized content distribution, these technologies remain firmly outside the toolkit of the world’s largest media dealmakers.