RAMROD 104,905 Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global have held talks about a potential merger of the two media companies, Variety has confirmed. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish in a lunch meeting Tuesday in New York where they discussed a possible merger, sources said. Zaslav also has talked with Shari Redstone, whose National Amusements Inc. owns a controlling stake in Paramount Global, about a potential combination of the companies. Reps for Paramount Global and WBD declined to comment. Axios first reported the talks. Terms of a possible merger of the companies could not be learned. Both companies have enlisted bankers but the status of the talks are described as very preliminary. As of the end of Q3, Paramount Global reported long-term debt of $15.6 billion, considerably less than WBD — whose debt load stood at $43.5 billion. But in terms of market value, Warner Bros. Discovery is the bigger fish, with a market capitalization of $28.4 billion as of close of trading Dec. 20 compared with $10.3 billion for Paramount Global. Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount would be looking to pool their assets, which span TV, film, sports and streaming, to gain greater scale and operational efficiencies. Specifically, WBD and Paramount would have an interest in combining their Max and Paramount+ premium streaming services to better compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney’s Disney+ and Hulu. On the film side, Warner Bros. Discovery would acquire top-tier properties from Paramount Pictures, including such film franchises as Terminator, Transformers, Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, A Quiet Place, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Godfather, Paranormal Activity, Scream and Star Trek film franchises. The Warner Bros. Pictures stable includes the DC Extended Universe films, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movie franchises. A merged WBD-Paramount Global would also be expected to combine their TV operations. Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable lineup includes CNN, HBO, TNT, TBS, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, Food Network, HGTV, TLC and others. Paramount’s networks include CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and BET. Also this week, media mogul Byron Allen reached out to Paramount’s top brass to extend a $3.5 billion offer to buy BET Media Group, which includes BET, VH1 and the BET+ streaming service. Sources said Warner Bros. Discovery senior execs felt like they had to move sooner rather than later to engage in discussions with Paramount Global after the reports about Skydance’s interest in buying out Redstone’s NAI stake. https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/warner-bros-discovery-paramount-merger-talks-1235847958/ If this finalized Nickelodeon, MTV, & RuPaul's Drag Race, among others will be part of WB. This is wild to think think about. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ✧*:･ﾟ 𝒮𝓀𝒾𝓅𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝒶𝓈𝓉 𝓇𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝑜𝓃 (*´艸｀*) ♡♡♡ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemo 4,209 Posted December 21, 2023 Share Posted December 21, 2023 Please no. I can just picture Zaslav ruining everything at Paramount like he already did at Warner. Of course, a few days ago, I'd heard that Paramount+ was in talks to merge with Apple TV+... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Railing 2,367 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 2 hours ago, Nemo said: Of course, a few days ago, I'd heard that Paramount+ was in talks to merge with Apple TV+... maybe we'll be getting Disney's ultimate enemy... Warner Bros Discovery Paramount Apple+ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doraemon 923 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 I don't know about Apple TV Plus. But WBD+P combined is gonna be really big. I have questions for DOJ right now, because they vehemently opposed an important airline merger that could save a lot of jobs, yet they approved others that has the same intentions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Future Lovers 6,545 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 With whose money? Warner has been gutting their library for tax write-offs and Paramount, despite having some too little too late success in 2022 and 2023, was just looking to sell themselves off not too long ago. Merging two struggling companies together is not going to save either company. Their financial situation will just continue to degrade. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
doraemon 923 Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 so basically we're about to see the merger between Disney-WarnerBrosDiscovery and Paramount-NBCUniversal? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Featured Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.