Warner Bros. Discovery In Talks To Merge With Paramount Global
One of the big topics of conversation in Hollywood at the moment is the future of Paramount Global. Most analysts and experts assume owner Shari Redstone will sell the company sooner rather than later. Now, a new report seems to confirm that one of the possibilities is seriously being explored, as Warner Bros. Discovery may be interested in a merger.
According to Axios, David Zaslav (CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery) met with Bob Bakish (CEO of Paramount Global) in New York on Tuesday to discuss the terms of a potential merger. Zaslav has also spoken to Redstone about it, and bankers are already crunching the numbers.
A little background on this: Paramount Global is the corporation that owns the film studio Paramount Pictures (run by Brian Robbins) along with CBS, BET, Comedy Central, etc., and also the streaming service Paramount Plus. It was founded by the Redstone family, which controls the voting shares through a private firm that owns Paramount Global named National Amusements Inc. (that also controls around 1,500 theaters around the globe). Shari Redstone owns that company and she would have to OK the deal.
It was reported a few weeks ago by Puck News and Deadline (independently) that David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, was also interested in acquiring Paramount Global, and that his way in would be through buying a stake in National Amusements. Skydance Media is of course already in business with Paramount through the Mission: Impossible franchise and last year’s Top Gun: Maverick. It’s unknown for now where those talks stand, but it’s now more clear than ever that Shari Redstone is looking for a way out, having now engaged in two potential discussions.
Axios also added that Zaslav is considering two options for the merger: buying Paramount Global or its parent company, National Amusements.
Shortly after the Axios report came out, another twist happened: Byron Allen, the billionaire behind Allen Media Group, has offered $3.5 billion to Paramount Global for BET, Variety is reporting. Allen had previously offered $2.7 billion earlier this year. Tyler Perry also bid for the network.
The question that still needs to be answered is whether or not this would get approved by anti-trust regulators. With 2024 being an election year and the Bidan administration having a history of stopping mergers between big corporations that would shrink the market, it looks like a hard sell. A merger between Paramount Global and WBD would result in a company owning two film studios and two major news networks (CNN and CBS), two streaming services, and several producers of animated content.
That’s the appeal to Zaslav, who wants WBD to grow and was probably considering selling to Comcast once he’s allowed to next year. However, the exec’s main goal ever since he took office has been to reduce the debt, which he’s been able to do at a fast pace so far. But one of Paramount’s big problems at the moment is also the ton of debt it’s accumulated, which would mean even more headaches for Zaslav in the short term.
For all of these reasons, a sale to Skydance Media seemed like a much better option.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
