David Ellison Won the Empire He So Desperately Wanted. Nobody Is Cheering.

Ms. Waxman is the founder, chief executive and editor in chief of The Wrap.

Nobody in Hollywood wanted any of this to happen. No matter who triumphed in the monthslong, high-stakes takeover battle between Paramount Skydance and Netflix for Warner Bros. Discovery, many other people are going to lose.

Netflix is widely resented for upending the business model of the legacy entertainment industry, which meant nobody was exactly cheering it on. The hostile takeover bid by Paramount, led by David Ellison, with backing from his tech-mogul father Larry Ellison (who happens to be quite friendly with Donald Trump) also left Hollywood nervous.

After years of tumult — Covid, strikes, streamer wars, wildfires — Hollywood is exhausted, angry, resentful and anxious. Now that Paramount has come out on top, the only relief is that the wait is over. Will it be good for business? Or just less bad than if Netflix had prevailed?

About a decade ago there was the giddy rush of a streaming boom as Apple and Amazon joined Netflix and dumped boatloads of cash into the entertainment ecosystem. It was called “Peak TV.” It seemed as if it might never end.

The legacy Hollywood studios tried to catch up, introducing their own streaming services: Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock, Starz and more. Everyone recognized that the once wildly profitable cable television business was dying, and streaming was an insatiable beast. Earnings calls became about the latest rise or fall in subscriptions. Investor decisions hung on the billions of dollars that companies were investing in “content,” as opposed to the theatrical release schedule or the biannual television and cable presentations.

One former head of a major entertainment conglomerate said to me that it was obvious in 2015 that streaming was coming for the cable business. The legacy studios told themselves that they would somehow make the transition, and, as in “Game of Thrones,” somehow defeat the zombie army.

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