{"id":21051,"date":"2023-12-21T16:31:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T21:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21051"},"modified":"2023-12-21T16:31:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T21:31:04","slug":"warner-bros-discovery-merger-talks-with-pramount-golobal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=21051","title":{"rendered":"Speculation Intensifies About Possible Merger of Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global\u00a0are reportedly talking about a potential merger.

According to press reports first published by Axios<\/em><\/a> and confirmed by Variety<\/em>,<\/a> the CEOs of the two companies\u2014Warner\u2019s David Zaslav and Paramount\u2019s Bob Bakish–met for lunch in New York on Tuesday to discuss the potential marriage. Zaslav has also reportedly been in talks with Shari Redstone of National Amusements Inc., which holds a controlling stake in Paramount Global.

None of the principals have publicly commented on the negotiations, and specific terms of any merger have not been disclosed, but a potential combination of the two industry giants could give it enormous clout in competing with streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu.<\/p>\r\n

As of this week, Warner Bros. Discovery has a market capitalization of $28.4 billion, nearly three times the figure for Paramount Global, at $10.3 billion. At the end of the third quarter, Paramount\u2019s long-term debt totaled $15.6 billion, much less than Warner Brothers Discovery\u2019s $43.5 billion. WBD\u2019s Zaslav had told investors last month that the company’s cost-cutting measures and debt reduction have allowed it \u201cto allocate more capital toward growth opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A potential combination of WBD and Paramount would only continue the \u201curge to merge\u201d mania that created the two behemoths. Warner Bros. Discovery was birthed when Discovery acquired WarnerMedia from AT&T in April of 2022. And Paramount Global was the product of a merger between CBS and Viacom in December of 2019.<\/p>\r\n

Both companies bring a significant creative portfolio to the table. Paramount Pictures owns a raft of iconic franchises, including The Godfather, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles<\/strong><\/em>, and Terminator<\/strong><\/em>. WBD assets include the Harry Potter<\/strong><\/em> and Lord of the Rings<\/strong><\/em> movie franchises as well as the DC Extended Universe<\/strong><\/em> films. Each company also owns a vast array of TV cable entities.

Though talks are still only in the preliminary stages, observers speculate that a merger would accelerate consolidation within the streaming industry, which is supplanting cable in today\u2019s fast-changing landscape. Warner\u2019s Max streaming service has 95 million subscribers and Paramount+ has 63 million, far less than Netflix\u2019s 247 million and Disney+\u2019s 105 million.

Elizabeth Parks, president of Parks Associates was quoted in USA Today<\/em><\/a> this week as saying: \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging time for service providers to make the money work. It makes sense that there will be a lot of consolidation in the market. We expect to see this as a strategy in 2024 for companies to grow subscriber and revenue growth.\u201d

Check out more of Edward\u2019s articles.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Global\u00a0are reportedly talking about a potential merger. According to press reports first published by Axios and confirmed by Variety, the CEOs of the two companies\u2014Warner\u2019s David Zaslav and Paramount\u2019s Bob Bakish–met for lunch in New York on Tuesday to discuss the potential marriage. Zaslav has also reportedly been in talks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21076,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[19578,10931,55,13359,92,11804,13251,9425],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWarner Bros. 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