Behind Paramount's relentless campaign to woo Warner Discovery, Donald Trump

Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison knew his latest bid for Warner Bros.

- Joe Flint, Brian Schwartz & Natalie Andrews

Discovery was in trouble when the company’s CEO, David Zaslav, started ghosting him.Paramount had spent the morning of Dec. 4 finalizing its sixth bid to acquire all of Warner: an all-cash $77.9 billion offer. But Paramount was worried that Warner had already settled on their preferred dance partner: Netflix.

"Just tried calling you about new bid we have submitted," Ellison texted Zaslav. "I heard you on all your concerns and believe we have addressed them in our new proposal. Please give me a call back when you can to discuss in detail."

He didn’t hear back.