AXIOS (Sara Fischer) - Hollywood's mega-merger battle ends with Warner Bros. as the real winner
Data: Financial Modeling Prep ; Chart: Axios Visuals In repeatedly rebuffing takeover offers from Paramount Skydance, Warner Bros. Discovery's board managed to create one of Hollywood's most dramatic and lucrative bidding wars, ultimately elevating the company's stock price and leading to a $31-a-share deal with Paramount. Why it matters: If the deal ultimately gets approved by regulators and goes through, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will have cemented his legacy as one of the savviest media dealmakers of all time. - It wasn't long ago that Zaslav, one of Hollywood's highest-paid executives, was facing grim prospects as his company struggled to convince Wall Street that its streaming strategy could compete with behemoths like…