Netflix announced last Friday that it would acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming assets for $82.7 billion, only to face a hostile counteroffer from Paramount Skydance on Monday of $108.4 billion for the entire company. The stakes transcend the future of Hollywood with both bidders paying their respects to President Donald Trump beforehand. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos made a November visit to the Oval Office. Meanwhile, the son of world’s-second-richest-man Ralph Ellison, Paramount CEO David Ellison, was spotted in the presidential box at Sunday’s Kennedy Center Honors before unveiling his bid backed by, among others, Jared Kushner’s private equity firm and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Whatever happens, Trump has said he’ll “be involved,”

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