How Paramount Won Warner Bros.
Reported by New York Times Business · nytimes.com ·
After months of legal and political wrangling, the media mogul David Ellison arrived at a deal with the coalition of states seeking to block his $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Story context
What to watch: Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. (WBD, XYZ, PARA) is involved in M&A activity valued around $111 billion — deal terms and financing structure matter more than the headline here.
Latest session change: $WBD +0.00%, $XYZ +5.25%, $PARA -3.89%
How this was labelled
New York Times Business published this one, and Wook filed it under Financials. The automated reading is neutral, at low severity. Both of those labels come from matching words in the headline and preview against a fixed list. No editor and no AI is involved, which keeps them consistent and also keeps them blunt: they describe how the story is worded, not what it will do. It was matched to $WBD, $XYZ and $PARA, so the prices beside it cover 3 companies rather than one. Matching works by reading symbols and company names out of the text, which means a company mentioned in passing gets tagged the same way as the one the story is about. The headline or preview carried 1 figure — $111 billion — shown above exactly as published. Nothing was recalculated. The preview above is the publisher's own wording.
When it landed
This one landed while New York was open, so the move shown beside it is a move the market could have been making as the story went round. It is worth keeping the two apart: the price next to a story and the story itself run on different clocks. The publication time is whatever the publisher stamped on it. Weekends are taken into account here; market holidays are not.
Where the price is
$WBD last traded at $30.95, +0.00% on the session. That is within a tenth of its 52-week high; the year runs $18.00 to $30.99. $XYZ last traded at $79.83, +5.25% on the session. That is in the upper part of its 52-week range; the year runs $48.21 to $86.92. $PARA last traded at $0.52, -3.89% on the session. That is within a tenth of its 52-week low; the year runs $0.51 to $63.00. These are the latest session quotes rather than live prices. A day's move picks up everything else that happened that day, so nothing here says this story caused any of it.
How much is being written
Wook has stored 121 stories about these names in the last 30 days, 11 of them this week. That is a steady rate rather than a spike. Across the whole run the wording has leaned bearish: 10% bullish, 68% neutral, 22% bearish. That is a count of how stories were worded, not what anyone thinks. 11 of them came from New York Times Business itself, so some of what looks like broad coverage is one outlet returning to the story. 12 are listed beside this one if you want to follow the trail yourself.
What is already on the calendar
$XYZ earnings in 18 days, $WBD earnings in 20 days, $XYZ earnings in 20 days and $XYZ earnings in 24 days. These are dates Wook already holds for the companies in this story. They are here because they are scheduled, not because this story has anything to do with them.
What this page is not saying
The tone and severity labels come from keyword matching. They are not a forecast, not a member vote, and not a recommendation. Any figures are copied from the headline or preview rather than worked out here, and a price move on the same day does not mean this story caused it. None of this is investment advice.
Discussion
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What happened after this published
New York Times Business published this on September 22, 2026. $WBD has moved +0.47% ($30.81 to $30.95), $XYZ has moved +3.07% ($77.45 to $79.83) and $PARA has moved -41.31% ($0.89 to $0.52). Measured from the first print available after publication, against the latest available quote. This comparison does not isolate the story's effect.