There’s one clear winner in the fight for Warner Bros. Discovery: Wall Street banks.
Some big names in finance could clean up. WBD is set to pay Allen & Co., J.P. Morgan, and Evercore a total of $225 million in connection with its sale to Netflix or David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, if a deal goes through, according to a new SEC filing.
WBD has been weighing dueling offers from Netflix, which wants to buy its studio and streaming business, and Paramount, which bid for the whole company (including its cable TV channels). WBD’s board reiterated its support for Netflix’s offer on Wednesday, following Paramount’s hostile offer last week.
WBD’s advisors appeared extensively throughout the bid process, participating in board meetings, negotiations, feedback sessions, and bid evaluations. They reviewed and provided feedback on the offers.
Here’s how WBD outlined the pay structure:
Allen & Co.: $85 million, $45 million of which is contingent on a deal being doneJ.P. Morgan: $85 million, $50 million of which is contingent on a deal being doneEvercore: $55 million contingent on a deal being done
WBD also retained Innisfree, a shareholder communications firm, to assist with investor communications, and Joelle Frank, a financial PR firm, to aid in public relations during the bid process. Its law firms, Debevoise & Plimpton, Wachtell Lipton, and Covington & Burling, also participated throughout the process.
Paramount, meanwhile, was advised by Centerview Partners, RedBird (which is backing its bid), BofA, Citi, and M. Klein & Company.
Moelis & Co advised Netflix.
Investment banks typically earn a mix of retainers and fees at closing, with the percentages decreasing as deals become larger.
Bankers have been having a banner year as media and telecoms M&A has heated up, according to a PwC deals outlook this month. It reported an uptick in the second half of 2025, with deals like Electronic Arts being taken private and the Los Angeles Lakers sale, driven by favorable financing, companies realigning, and investor appetite for valuable IP. Excluding the announced WBD sale, PwC reported a 61% increase in deal value from the second half of 2024 to the second half of 2025.
PwC expects robust M&A activity to continue for the next several years, as investors continue to seek value in content libraries, video games, and sports assets that can be monetized in various ways.
