After joining forces with Skydance, Paramount will seriously consider (and possibly spend money) presenting a bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery! Before recent updates about the merger, The Wall Street Journal said WBD shares rocketed by 30% in afternoon trading. Furthermore, the WSJ says Paramount will present most of the bid in cash courtesy of the Ellison family. Naturally, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery remain mum about the supposed deal.

Patriarch Larry Ellison, chairman and co-founder of Oracle, is like Scrooge McDuck’s money bin if it had legs. He’s one of the wealthiest people on the planet, with Larry’s son, David, recently spending $8.4 billion to merge Skydance Media with Paramount Global.

Whispers about Warner Bros. Discovery being the next target for the Ellison family are widespread. Rumors indicate that the deal would involve acquiring the entire company, not just a portion of its power.

“Ellison has been looking at Warner Bros for awhile,” an individual close to Paramount brass told Deadline this morning. “Nothing new there, he’s just taking a closer look, assessing the pros and cons.”

It goes without saying that the FCC must clear the deal before any party poppers shoot confetti and glitter into the air. Merging companies as large as Paramount and WBD is no small feat, with the fangs of many lawyers waiting to drink from their respective victims.

If the deal goes through, Paramount could take control of WBD’s money-making properties, such as the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, James Gunn and Peter Safran’s DC Universe, The Lord of the Rings franchise, Game of Thrones, the Monsterverse, Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and more!

What do you think about Paramount and the Ellison family opening bank accounts for a possible purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery? Is WBD willing to take a significant lump sum of cash to relinquish control of its most valuable IPs? How much must Paramount offer WBD even to consider the merger? Is Paramount getting too big for its britches, or is that just crazy talk? Are we living on a monopoly chess board of entertainment? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.