The battle over WBD left three big winners on Wall Street—while the thousands who lost out will remain behind the scenes

The battle between Netflix and Paramount over the fate of Warner Bros. Discovery has concluded with a decidedly odd outcome: Everybody won. At least that’s Wall Street’s opinion on the saga.

It all began last December when WBD agreed to sell its Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max streaming service to the streaming giant Netflix. Days later, Paramount Skydance lobbed in a hostile bid to buy all of WBD. Amid multiple twists and turns—and the CEOs of both bidding companies separately visiting...