Paramount used a playbook to close a $110 billion deal that you could use to change your life.
It’s the same playbook that just handed one family control of Batman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and almost every story you grew up watching.
And to discover all the secrets behind Paramount and Warner Bros.’ deal, I break them all down in episode 2 of my new show, Billion Dollar Deals.
I’m taking everything I’ve learned from my career at Goldman Sachs and building two billion dollar businesses to analyze exactly how the biggest deals on the planet are made.
In every episode, I’ll be breaking down the hidden strategies and risks behind deals that changed industries and built empires.
All while giving you the tactics to try them for yourself in your own life or business:
Here are the secrets behind this deal that you can use to get ahead of 99% of people…
Now back in 2018, Warner Bros. content was at its peak. They had Batman, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings.
And HBO included TV shows like Game of Thrones.
But at the same time, Netflix was starting to prove two things:
Streaming movies was more convenient than going to theatres.
A subscription would cost much less than a cable package.
This meant that the entire Hollywood business model was going to change forever.
And so, despite decades of success Warner Bros. was left in a place that most businesses never survive…
They had $43 billion of debt, a dying cable business that had lost $9 billion, and a streaming platform that couldn’t compete.
So after years of trying to make it work, Warner Bros. only had one option left.
They had to sell…
Two buyers stepped forward…
The first buyer was Netflix. They were the top streaming platform in the world with 325 million subscribers and $18 billion in annual content spend.
They saw this as their chance to dominate the market. They wanted the IP, the studio, the streaming platform, and HBO.
The second buyer was Paramount. Unlike Netflix, Paramount had only 79 million paid subscribers and $4 billion in annual content spend.
And their streaming platform, Paramount+, was struggling to catch up with the other platforms like Netflix, Disney and Amazon.
For Paramount, buying Warner Bros. was the solution they were looking for.
Because if they wanted to have a chance in this streaming war, they needed to own your childhood heroes.
But Paramount was losing the war…
They had made 7 offers to Warner Bros. and every single one was rejected.
So in December of 2025, Warner signs a deal with Netflix for:
$27.75 per share.
$82.7 billion in cash.
And the cable networks get spun off into Discovery Global.
But even with the Netflix deal signed Paramount didn’t give up… they tried again.
In January of 2026, Paramount went directly to the shareholders with their 8th and final offer…
Except this time, the offer was completely different.
Because for the first time in eight bids, Warner Bros. couldn’t say no.
And in February 2026, Warner walked away from Netflix to accept Paramount’s deal.
But here’s the thing:
Paramount didn’t just win because of the money.
They won because of a playbook that was used 22 years ago by the same family who now controls Paramount…
This deal playbook is what let them secure the biggest media takeover in a generation.
And this playbook could also help you get ahead of 99% of people…
It’s called… The Ellison Squeeze.
The first part of the Ellison Squeeze is the initial offer, which was $19 per share.
This was to get Paramount a seat at the table so they could bid on Warner Bros.
The second part is the squeeze.
This is where Paramount changed their offer based on the data they were gathering.
Remember, Paramount was turned down 7 times during this process. So each new bid was data they could use to get closer to a final number.
And so, the $19 per share bid would increase dramatically with every bid that was made to secure this deal.
Until the final price per share was $31 or about $110 billion including debt.
Now the 3rd part of the Ellison Squeeze is called the board bypass. The board bypass uses a hostile tender tactic.
This is when a public offer is made directly to shareholders instead of the board to buy their shares.
But the interesting part about this is that the offer isn’t even designed to be accepted.
It’s designed to get rejected.
The hostile tender offer being rejected forces the shareholders to question why the board hadn’t brought this deal to them during the bidding process.
But the deal wasn’t closed just yet…
Paramount still had the legal wall to overcome in step 4. Which means you do whatever it takes to get around the contracts.
For Paramount, this was writing the $2.8B check to Netflix to absorb Warner’s breakup fee.
But even with the legal barrier gone, there was still another part they needed to remove…
The board could still claim, “You can’t actually fund this deal.”
This is where the Ellisons used step 5… the certainty weapon.
Paramount did this with the personal guarantee of $40 billion worth of Oracle stock from Larry Ellison.
And only now are they ready for the 6th and final step of the Ellison Squeeze… the internal collapse.
You squeeze the board with pressure until it breaks from the inside out.
Everything in the Ellison Squeeze leads up to this moment.
And Paramount executed it perfectly…
They were the underdog in this story.
But each time they got rejected, they used it as data to determine what they did next. They were resilient and never gave up.
Which proves to us that sometimes, you might only be 7 no’s away from the yes that gets you ahead of 99% of people.
You just have to keep going…
So let me give you an example of how you can use the “Ellison Squeeze” right now.
Maybe you’re trying to land your dream job, so you start by making your opening offer.
But they say they’re not hiring right now.
Now what if you proposed a start date that was three months out instead?
And with every rejection, you keep reducing the risk to make it look even better for them.
While this may be aggressive, you could bypass the hiring manager and cold email the CEO with your no-brainer offer.
And if the contract is the issue, you could offer to do a trial project first to remove the risk and create the certainty they want.
Because at this point:
You’ve removed almost all the risk
Given them certainty
And created a near-perfect offer for them
This is how you could use the “Ellison Squeeze” to get almost anything you want in life.
Just like the Ellison family and Paramount did…
You treat each of the 7 no’s as an opportunity and not a door being closed on you.
Holy Shit! Now this is a game worth watching. This is packed with so many lessons, deff gonna be doing some digging. Thanks Sharran!