{"id":59238,"date":"2026-02-27T17:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/paramount-to-acquire-warner-bros-discovery-in-110b-deal-trump-bans-anthropic-ai-and-markets-slide\/59238\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T17:38:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:38:21","slug":"paramount-to-acquire-warner-bros-discovery-in-110b-deal-trump-bans-anthropic-ai-and-markets-slide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/paramount-to-acquire-warner-bros-discovery-in-110b-deal-trump-bans-anthropic-ai-and-markets-slide\/59238\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount to Acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $110B Deal; Trump Bans Anthropic AI and Markets Slide"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Paramount Global (<a href=\"\/stock\/PARA\">PARA<\/a>) has agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (<a href=\"\/stock\/WBD\">WBD<\/a>) for $31 per share, representing a massive $110 billion enterprise valuation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>President <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a> ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic\u2019s AI technology, citing &quot;woke&quot; policies and national security concerns.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>U.S. equity markets closed lower on Friday, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/stockmarketwatch.com\/markets\/dowjones\/today.aspx\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Dow Jones Today\">Dow Jones<\/a> falling over 560 points while the KBW Bank Index (<a href=\"\/stock\/BKX\">BKX<\/a>) plunged 4.9%.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Supreme Court issued a landmark decision on tariffs that <a href=\"https:\/\/thestockmarketwatch.com\/live\/trump-stock-market\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Trump\">Trump<\/a> claims could return &quot;hundreds of billions of dollars&quot; to the U.S. from foreign entities.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Dell Technologies (<a href=\"\/stock\/DELL\">DELL<\/a>) and Netflix (<a href=\"\/stock\/NFLX\">NFLX<\/a>) bucked the downward trend, surging 22% and 14% respectively following strong performance metrics.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In a move that reshapes the global media landscape, Paramount Global (<a href=\"\/stock\/PARA\">PARA<\/a>) announced it will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (<a href=\"\/stock\/WBD\">WBD<\/a>) at an <strong>enterprise valuation of $110 billion<\/strong>. The deal, priced at <strong>$31 per share<\/strong>, sent shockwaves through the entertainment sector as Paramount Skydance (<a href=\"\/stock\/PSKY\">PSKY<\/a>) shares closed the day <strong>up 21%<\/strong>, their best performance since last August.<\/p>\n<p>On the policy front, President Trump issued a directive for every federal agency to <strong>immediately cease all use of Anthropic&#39;s technology<\/strong>. Trump criticized the AI firm as a &quot;radical left, woke company&quot; and established a <strong>six-month phase-out period<\/strong> for agencies currently utilizing its products, specifically mentioning the Department of War. He warned that the company must &quot;get their act together&quot; or face the &quot;full power of the presidency&quot; to ensure compliance.<\/p>\n<p>Wall Street faced significant selling pressure as the major indices closed in the red. The <strong>Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.14% (563.04 points)<\/strong> to 48,936.16, while the <strong>Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.96%<\/strong> to 22,658.03. The <strong>KBW Bank Index (<a href=\"\/stock\/BKX\">BKX<\/a>) suffered its biggest drop since April<\/strong>, sliding 4.9% as investors reacted to the latest Federal Reserve H.8 data on bank assets and liabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the broader market slump, specific tech giants posted historic gains. Dell Technologies (<a href=\"\/stock\/DELL\">DELL<\/a>) <strong>jumped 22%<\/strong> in its best single-day performance since March 2024, and Netflix (<a href=\"\/stock\/NFLX\">NFLX<\/a>) <strong>rose 14%<\/strong>, marking its strongest day in over two years. <em>Analysts suggest these gains reflect a flight to quality in the tech sector amid geopolitical uncertainty.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Geopolitical tensions remained high as President Trump commented on potential strikes in Iran, stating he is <strong>&quot;not concerned&quot; about the impact on oil prices<\/strong>. Trump expressed dissatisfaction with ongoing negotiations, noting that Iran &quot;wants to enrich a little bit&quot; despite their vast oil reserves. Concurrently, Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaled a harder line, suggesting the U.S. will <strong>designate Iran as a state sponsor of wrongful detention<\/strong> regarding hostage-taking.<\/p>\n<p>In international credit news, <strong>S&amp;P Global affirmed Portugal\u2019s &#39;A+&#39; rating<\/strong> and revised its outlook to positive, citing a resilient economy. Similarly, <strong>Morningstar DBRS confirmed the Netherlands at AAA<\/strong> with a stable trend, and <strong>Scope Ratings affirmed Switzerland\u2019s AAA rating<\/strong>. These affirmations come as Trump celebrated a Supreme Court decision on tariffs, which he believes will allow the U.S. to reclaim billions from companies that have been &quot;ripping off&quot; the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways Paramount Global (PARA) has agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for $31 per share, representing a massive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[17715,58,248,3829,3860,3871,4179,4180,4537,4664],"class_list":["post-59238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-bkx","tag-nflx","tag-dell","tag-ma","tag-wbd","tag-para","tag-tariffs","tag-trump","tag-anthropic","tag-iran"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}