Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) shareholder meeting Thursday approved a merger with Paramount Skydance, the former company said in a statement.
“Warner Bros. Discovery announced today that its shareholders voted to approve the previously announced transaction with Paramount Skydance Corporation at today’s Special Meeting of Shareholders,” the company said.
This clears the way for Paramount to acquire WBD for $111 billion and take over the company’s assets, which include HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+.
Under the terms of the deal, which has drawn criticism from Hollywood since its inception, WBD shareholders will receive $31 in cash for each share of WBD common stock they own.
The vote has yet to be formally certified, and both companies expect to get approval from government regulators and close the transaction in the third quarter of 2026.
WBD President and CEO David Zaslav said in the statement that the approval of the deal represents “another key milestone in completing this historic transaction, which will generate exceptional value for our shareholders.”
WBD’s board of directors had unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favor of the merger with Paramount, parent company of CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, Nickelodeon and others.
Last February, Paramount increased its takeover bid from $30 to $31 per share in an attempt to defeat the advance made by Netflix, which was also seeking to take over the company and for whose bid WBD had initially leaned.
After Paramount submitted that new offer, Netflix decided to withdraw and leave the way clear for the merger with WBD.
Paramount’s acquisition of WBD has been criticized by sectors of Hollywood.
Recently, some 2,000 Hollywood artists, including Javier Bardem, Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Mark Ruffalo and Rose Byrne, signed a letter expressing their opposition to the merger.
The signatories denounced that the deal will harm an already struggling entertainment industry, causing “fewer opportunities for creators, less employment in the production ecosystem, higher costs and fewer options for the public” both in the United States and globally, reported Agencia EFE.
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