In recent months, the television watching public has watched as mega studios battled it out in the media on who would become the next major-mega-conglomerate of film, television, and streaming.
On April 23 the shareholders at Warner Bros voted to approve the takeover of Paramount’s $81 billion takeover by an overwhelming margin.
Just last year Skydance bought Paramount.
With the merger, Warner Paramount would own all of Paramount which includes CBS, Paramount +, HBO Max, “Harry Potter”, and CNN.
Speaking via statement CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery David Zaslav said the vote is, “another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction.”
Paramount added that they looked forward to closing the deal and “realizing the creation of a next-generation media and entertainment company.”
The merger still has one big hurdle to jump – regulatory reviews. And the deal has a number of critics who object to further limiting the number of companies who control the industry.
For a while Netflix was in a bidding battle with Paramount over who would merge with Warner Bros Discovery. In the end Paramount came across with a better deal and Netflix dropped out of the running.
Not everyone is happy about the potential mega deal; thousands in the entertainment industry have expressed “unequivocal opposition” for the deal citing a loss of jobs and fewer choices.
Jane Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment issued a statement calling the potential merger a “serious setback” for the industry adding, “a handful of powerful decision-makers should not be allowed to quietly reshape American media, culture, and creative life without accountability.”
Currently there are just five Hollywood legacy studios remaining; but the merger would involve two of those studios.
Advocates for the merger use the “bigger library” story as a good reason to let the deal go through…but at what cost???; especially if HBO Max and Paramount+ merge into one streaming service.
But no takeover or merger has even happened without bringing massive cost cutting measures along with it; and this one will be no different. Overlapping operations would bring downsizing and layoffs – Disney has just announced a major layoff campaign of some 1,000 employees.