This episode of The Town is presented by 20th century studios Avatar, Fire, and Ash.

Don't Miss the movie Critics Are Raving is epic and exciting and gorgeous and heartbreaking,

and stands as one of the greatest films ever made.

It's got incredible visuals, jaw-dropping action, and a cinematic achievement.

Avatar, Fire, and Ash, now playing in theaters, and now nominated for the Academy Awards for

Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design. It is Friday, February 27th. It's official. We have a

winner in the battle for Warner Brothers, and it's paramount.

Quite a stunner. Not that the Ellison's ended up on top, or that they ultimately agree to a deal worth $11 billion.

I've actually been predicting the Ellison since the beginning of the auction for Warner Brothers Studio and HBO Max and CNN last fall.

Even after Netflix closed its $83 billion deal for the studio and streamer in December.

But still, the way it went down, pretty surprising.

Earlier this week, Paramount finally raised its bid from $30 a share for the whole company to $31.

Plus, the Ellison's agreed to a bunch of additional sweeteners on top of the breakup fees.

And Larry Ellison, one of the richest men in the world, he agreed to backstop the deal if it falls through.

It was all enough for the Warner Brothers Discovery Board to declare the Paramount bid, quote,

superior, which then gave Netflix four days to submit a matching bid, which most of us expected them to do,

given how aggressive Netflix

has been fighting for their deal. But nope, Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, the co-CEOs. They walked

almost immediately. Ted was actually in D.C. courting the Justice Department when this all went down.

We've always been disciplined, he wrote in a statement. At the price required to match Paramount

Skydance's latest

offer, the deal is no longer financially attractive. Of course, there was a political cloud

...