I'm sorry to tell you, but whichever way the wind blows, this is the likely outcome. Netflix doesn't want CNN, and so it'll be sold off to the next highest bidder too.
CNN's already fallen as it is, just like CBS. The hall monitors have arrived, the propaganda is flowing free. You're doing yourself a disservice by continuing to include them in your media diet.
This is also a bid for the whole company which the Netflix deal was not.
This would include WBD tv networks and assumedly CNN, giving Trump’s friend Ellison control of CBS news, CNN, and a broader swath of broadcast.
The Trump admin that raised antitrust concerns over the more limited deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. will have no issue with this larger consolidation.
Wow I didn't realize that, I can only imagine the societal impact of CNN going through that change, if not all the viewers are aware of it (specifically the news)
I mean that's Fox, but their numbers are still relatively up so a lot of those people went back especially for Fox Sports broadcasts which on cable just segway into the news.
CNN had the same sort of migration but it was their leadership that tried to bring in the conservative watch audience. If anything all these networks are just losing viewers to online influencers like Aaron Parnas.
I am actually hoping that if the Trump admin shoots down the netflix deal, it will also kill the paramount deal. While the Trump FTC would be willing to give paramount the greenlight, netflix could challenge the paramount deal themselves. Paramount would have to argue in court how their larger acquisition is fine while Netflix's smaller deal was not
But none of the people running these agencies has any shame, so they'll have no problem with the double standard and allowing the worse, more monopolistic deal to go through as long as it benefits the right (pun intended) group.
That's why we have to rely on the courts, which have put some pushback on trump.
To stop the Netflix deal, the FTC would have to argue in court that the deal violates anti-trust laws. Then, when paramount comes in, even if the FTC does not challenge them, Netflix can take paramount to court instead to challenge their deal. The judge will then have to deal with the fact that courts had already ruled that a more limited deal violated anti-trust laws. Heck, there is even a chance it will be the same judge. The Trump admin may not care about hypocricy and being blatantly corrupt, but the courts are more reluctant to contradict themselves so directly
But they can still achieve some of this without the WB film side of the business... Ultimately they let Netflix take the film studio (Warner Brothers) and it's assets - Zaslov has already said his goal was to split the company back into 2 where one takes the TV side and the other is the film side. The Ellisons just come in and take the TV side with a hostile bid there, save themselves some money in the process. Then they've got full control of CNN.
Good point. Netflix makes some aggravating business decisions for consumers but the content they produce is what they think want to watch, not what ideology they want to push.
Paramount parent company was bought by Larry Ellison's son, David Ellison. Larry Ellison, the owner of oracle, has been coddling up to trump for more power and influence, but his son (the owner of paramount) seems like a true believer in Maga. We already have a consolidation of media, but paramount would probably be the worst actor of the bunch.
Kimmel is on ABC (Disney). Paramount DID cancel Colbert because he was talking about them too much. They also gutted the CBS news staff and installed a sycophant in charge of the news division.
Technically Colbert wasn't canceled - they didn't renew his contract which was set to end in 2026, which is why his show is still airing atm.
Kimmel was actually canceled (they took him off air immediately even with an active contract) which was why there was such a huge outburst about it which forced Disney to reverse course.
Sure. But at that point you’re getting into technicalities and while correct, obscures the true motivation. Getting back into technicalities, Kimmel also wasn’t cancelled. He was “indefinitely suspended”. But that also wasn’t because Ellison and his business deal needed to be on Trumps good side since he’s on ABC, which was all the purpose of my comment.
And with Netflix acquiring WB, then there would still be the same number of studios with worldwide theatrical distribution of movies. If Paramount buys them, we lose one of those theatrical outlets. And that would be bad.
Quite frankly, it's insane for anyone to consider a Skydance offer. They are clearly leveraged to the hilt already just to complete the current Paramount offer. I wouldn't trust their source of funding for a purchase of WB so soon after that. Nor would I believe the debt to asset ratio over the long term was anything less than disastrous for the combined company.
At this point, Disney might as well step in too...
At this point, Disney might as well step in too...
Disney would have to pay too much in bribes to the regulators to try to get this to pass. There's a reason they didn't even consider it for themselves - the FTC's going to immediately say "hell no," and it'll be five years at the DOJ, even with President Felon at the helm accepting million dollar dinners for deeds done and lubricating the government's wheels.
Skydance's offer is the only other reasonable offer on the table besides Netflix's, and it's not the better offer, even if it's for everything. There's a reason HBO already chose to go with Netflix, and the reason is it better fits the discharge of their assets - they want to settle their debts, not turn into a debt tornado that'll only get sorted out by a bankruptcy court. Netflix is offering cash, and that's what they want.
Not just Paramount, every streaming service is pushing for higher and higher fees like cable. There is no difference between streaming and cable at this point. The number of streaming services to watch say NBA games is dumb AF and defeats the entire point of cutting the cable.
Streaming is still nothing like cable. Ad free plans exist, everything is on demand, works on all devices, and you can cancel any time. Sports in particular has never been well covered by streaming, so if you care about sports you've never been able to cut the cord anyway. If anything streaming access to sports has improved even if it still sucks.
Netflix's biggest crime is not exclusively making hit shows and movies to fill the void after Disney and the few other major IP owners pulled six decades of holy-survivorship-bias pop content to start their own streaming services.
Paramount also had quite literally nothing but Taylor Sheridan bullshit and other shit boomers like only. They have virtually nothing younger people want except maybe paw patrol and SpongeBob for kids lol. They're in a spot where they almost need WB for HBO properties or they're screwed. They lost Taylor Sheridan.
I’m not a fan of Netflix openly trying to kill theatrical releases though. I love the act of getting out of the house and going to a movie theater and watching on the big screen. That experience can’t be replicated at home.
Im not saying you’re wrong, but Netflix is $30.00 a month now unless you want ads or low quality streams. And a some point, even the high end plans will have ads. And account protections make signing in to Netflix already onerous unless you only ever watch on one device, in one location.
All these streaming companies are headed in the same direction and none of them have our best interests at heart.
Larry Ellison (of Oracle and MAGA donation fame) is heavily involved with this deal. His son owns Paramount after the skydance merger. They also specifically want CNN which was not part of the Netflix deal, which explains why Trump prefers the Paramount deal - he 100% wants them to start firing unfriendly media heads
Paramount is worse for us on levels that are almost incomprehensible. Larry Ellison(Paramount) is David Ellison's son... eventually he may inherit Oracle, and Tik Tok. Paramount cancelled Colbert for government favor for a merger, and now they want Warner Brothers too.
That's the reason he can throw money at it, it's not about profit, it's about control and power over the media.
I think we all know which would be worse. Silver spoon baby David Ellison buying everything he can with his daddy's money would be worse. He got Paramount and Skydance. Also, Larry Ellison and David Ellison are very close to Trump and using that leverage to impact this deal.
Like showing up to the wedding and begging the bride to give you a chance. Would be hilarious if not for the fact all that money came out of our collective pockets.
Paramount has ingratiated Trump already, haven’t they? Netflix will need to buy some Trump meme coin or DJT stock to keep him from blocking their merger.
Larry Ellison is a major MAGA donor and his son owns Paramount so yeah. They also want CNN as part of the deal and have probably promised to start axing unfriendly media personalities
I cant wait until “big money” buys up everything it can touch until its just one huge media company. Then it can die off and we can all move on from this hellscape.
Paramount set themselves up for that by announcing that they’d allow sex pest Brett Ratner to direct his Rush Hour 4 movie that no one wanted. Why? Because Trump wanted them to, of course.
The actual reason is that Brett Ratner directed that Melania documentary that Amazon paid $40M for (again to appease the president), so Trump is doing his sexual assaulter buddy a solid.
To be fair I’ve been saying for like 4 or 5 years they need to make Rush Hour 4. But I’m also not the President and it’s insane that the president has that as one of his priorities.
Realistically speaking, if the FTC interferes with Netflix completing the acquisition, none of the media companies are going to get it - they have the least consolidated position in the media ownership landscape. Netflix's bid is also dramatically the least complicated: here's some cash, this is the stuff we want, shake hands and do the deal. The other bids are heavily leveraged, debt financed, multiple participants... they're a mess by comparison.
If they bounce Netflix's bid and attempt Paramount's, Netflix sues the US government and Paramount, and it's not a case they can win, because it looks like exactly what it is: blatant corruption.
At that point, Warner files bankruptcy, and the court sells off its assets to the highest bidder... which... seems pretty damn silly, when Netflix is offering cash right now.
Only problem is, so few are willing to stick their necks out and tell Trumpty Dumbty no to the blatant corruption.
The Ellison's got down on their knees so fast to slob on the orange man's tiny knob for these reasons.
Trumpty Dumbty wants his cut of everything, otherwise he tells whatever regulatory body that is supposed to be independent on the WH to do what he says. It is so disgusting.
If paramount gets its way it would be really bad for us news as it would include cnn. They already have CBS and would account for a large portion of the flow of information.
Netflix can always counter, but the Fed has final say and will probably only want to approvethe Paramountoffer, and while their decision can be challenged in court, the SCOTUS won't rule against the administration on something like this.
I bet Netflix will make a fictional series about this. Two media corporations fighting over the carcass of a smaller media competitor. While a corrupt POTUS tries to extort a piece of the winning deal behind the scenes
I feel like that’s how all companies are these days. Just shells of companies with other shells of companies inside of them. It’s like Russian nesting dolls. Literally just billionaires opening up every layer and seeing how they can squeeze a penny out of it before discarding its carcass.
If we are strictly talking about consumer short term gains, Netflix is an easy choice for almost any media. Its a quality app where people get a lot of their content from already. At least David is being honest however that he doesn't give a shit about his customer base.
That being said its crazy moves like these aren't illegal. Fiduciary duty should not mean direct shareholder value. Netflix shouldn't be able to send me a fucking email on this being a done deal when it hasn't even passed regulatory approval. The media shouldn't be a tool for CEO's to do battle.
Netflix shouldn't be able to send me a fucking email on this being a done deal when it hasn't even passed regulatory approval.
They sent out a press release which states in no uncertain terms that the deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. I don't know if this is your first time seeing one of these press releases in person, but the language in them is boilerplate - it couldn't be more standardized.
As far as Netflix and Warner Brothers are concerned, the deal is done. This late tendering of a higher bid is too late, and it's not what the Warner Brothers board wanted anyhow.
If the US government interferes with the deal, there's no possible way Paramount's ending up winning out without it looking like the most corrupt government interference in the history of the US government. It's about as straightforward as these M&A deals ever go, and the biggest argument against it - media consolidation - only gets worse when you look at the other bidders.
If the US government interferes with the deal, there's no possible way Paramount's ending up winning out without it looking like the most corrupt government interference in the history of the US government.
So totally on course for the current administration?
Except paramount’s rich asshole is actively trying to gain control of as much media as possible to push his political view points onto the populace. Netflix’s rich asshole is just a rich asshole.
So the plan is basically “what if we stack two debt bonfires to block Netflix.” On paper you get “synergies” and better bargaining power, in practice you get antitrust risk, culture clash, and an even bigger balance sheet problem. Feels more like endgame consolidation than an actual strategy.
I would rather Netflix own WB than Paramount. Paramount cant even keep their flagship IP's going where Netflix will at least do it properly, but cancel it after the first season.
Paramount will get it one way or another. Ellison defacto owns Paramount and he's a key Trump ally so Trump can launch an anti trust case against Netflix or do any other kind of shady shit to get them to pull the plug so that Paramount gets WBD. Paramount isnt even raising the money on its own, there's tons of middle eastern money flowing into it just like with EA, this shit stinks.
Circular economy like AI and NVIDIA. Kushner and Palentier CEO are in Paramount. They get favorable governmental treatment for taking WB and making them favorable to the GOP. WB stock is bought up by GOP richies. Money is handed back and forth between rich people. The lay person gets a bombarded with right wing content. Sounds American AF
The Turner -> AT&T deal saddled Warnermedia with an enormous amount of AT&T originated debt that Discovery took on as part of the WBD merger. A significant portion has been paid down over the last 3.5 years but it’s still high.
Why is Warner up for sale in the first place or is this just a hostile takeover war??
They've been struggling with all sorts of issues for many years and the current CEO who took over ~3 years ago after the WB/Discovery merger (he was CEO of Discovery at the time) has essentially been grooming the company for sale instead of trying to make the company functional again while he put HBO/WB on a race to the bottom for quality of content in the same manner that Discovery embraced under his leadership as he ran it into the ground.
Where's all this money come from and whats the ROI? I can't make this make sense. Thwart what exactly? Feel like someone's going to be left holding the bag here and it's going to be the American people yet again...
Ok... can someone explain if this would even go to the board of WBD? They already agree to sell to Netflix so not sure what this would do? It's not like WBD can rescind and cancel the deal (can thry?). And not even the fact that Netflix is offering 87 Bn for a part of the company and this 101Bn its for the whole company; so on the surface this one looks like the lesser deal.
The administration won't approve the Netflix deal and clear the way for the takeover. They already picked Ellison and Paramount to be the winners since they are willing to bribe the pedo in chief.
I would love to see paramount win. America go back to business as usual and Paramount get hit with massive fines for violating free speech, and warner bros gets handed over to Netflix for free. We need to set a tone that corrupt large corporations are no longer immune.
Paramount is already struggling. If they were to buy Warner Bros, they would be in more debt and they would do another round of layoffs and cancel more shows.
My preference would be for neither to get it, but despite Paramount being trumpy and conservative and a nepo baby, if Netflix gets it, they'll destroy the entertainment industry. Not just movie theaters, but by slowly grinding everything down to garbage and making it impossible for the average person in the industry to make a living.
On the one hand, Paramount reeeeeally looks like a consortium of evildoers (the Saudis, et al) with Ellison as a front. On the other hand, Netflix looks at the rainforest that is the Hollywood ecosystem and thinks "what's the fastest way to clear cut the whole thing?"
At the end of the day, I think evil might be easier to recover from than decimation. I mean, flip a coin, right? But if I was gonna take a guess, David Ellison has the benefit of really only caring about making successful, commercial movies, which means that his moral compass remains flexible.
We don’t need Larry Ellisons son to own CNN of all things. Fuck that guy.
They’ll just own half of the media in the country including 2 of the largest “news” networks, what could go wrong?
Hello propaganda
Zionist propaganda on steroids. If you have a bad thought about Israel you’ll never get a job again.
I'm sorry to tell you, but whichever way the wind blows, this is the likely outcome. Netflix doesn't want CNN, and so it'll be sold off to the next highest bidder too.
CNN's already fallen as it is, just like CBS. The hall monitors have arrived, the propaganda is flowing free. You're doing yourself a disservice by continuing to include them in your media diet.
They want to control the media before the midterms.
I agree with you, but then I think about how long it’s been since CNN was a trustworthy news site.
I don't know which is the worse outcome, but it's interesting to watch a $100b tantrum from afar.
Paramount would definitely be worse for us, all they want is the return of cable: high subscription fees plus unskippable ads at all levels.
Netflix isn't perfect but they don't look at the pre-streaming days and sigh longingly.
This is also a bid for the whole company which the Netflix deal was not.
This would include WBD tv networks and assumedly CNN, giving Trump’s friend Ellison control of CBS news, CNN, and a broader swath of broadcast.
The Trump admin that raised antitrust concerns over the more limited deal between Netflix and Warner Bros. will have no issue with this larger consolidation.
Wow I didn't realize that, I can only imagine the societal impact of CNN going through that change, if not all the viewers are aware of it (specifically the news)
CNN was already in the tank for trump last year with a rebrand trying to get maga viewership
It's hilarious how often Trump calls CNN fake news considering how much water they carry for him
They’ve been trying for 6 years actually but it fails because their core audience isn’t conservatives
Reality has a well-known liberal bias
Yeah, unfortunately facts have a liberal bias so naturally, when you tend to report facts, you get accused of having a bias.
Does nobody fucking remember November 2020? Trump supporters were leaving fox news in droves after they called Biden the winner.
It's a fucking cult and you cannot gain viewership with anything short of completely kowtowing to trump.
I mean that's Fox, but their numbers are still relatively up so a lot of those people went back especially for Fox Sports broadcasts which on cable just segway into the news.
CNN had the same sort of migration but it was their leadership that tried to bring in the conservative watch audience. If anything all these networks are just losing viewers to online influencers like Aaron Parnas.
People always miss the new head of CNN has been pushing it more right wing to capitalize on it's brand.
Skydance/P and SA/Qatar getting their hands on it woild be terrible.
CNN has already degraded in coverage quality, they're far more right wing than they were even a few years ago.
It was funny seeing CNN grill Tennessee's aftyn or Fareed Zackaria host neocons. Independent media ftw
I haven’t found any independent media that isn’t them just watching CNN for me.
Democracy Now! The war and peace report.
Exactly. Amy Goodman is incredible.
The Ellisons have also begun instituting a blacklist consisting of actors who have spoken out against the genocide in Gaza.
Bingo.
It’s no coincidence that this offer comes up after dumbshit trumpf openly said he would be meddling in the deal.
The government will probably have a financial share of the new company when it’s over.
The “government”. You mean Trump and Co will have a share.
Well at the moment they are the government considering how they’re running it “I AM THE SENATE” god I needa watch Star Wars again
He loves state owned media too he just makes sure they bribe him to have his control
That’s what’s really going on here. They dont care about hbo, they want access to news stations so they control the messaging.
I am actually hoping that if the Trump admin shoots down the netflix deal, it will also kill the paramount deal. While the Trump FTC would be willing to give paramount the greenlight, netflix could challenge the paramount deal themselves. Paramount would have to argue in court how their larger acquisition is fine while Netflix's smaller deal was not
But none of the people running these agencies has any shame, so they'll have no problem with the double standard and allowing the worse, more monopolistic deal to go through as long as it benefits the right (pun intended) group.
That's why we have to rely on the courts, which have put some pushback on trump.
To stop the Netflix deal, the FTC would have to argue in court that the deal violates anti-trust laws. Then, when paramount comes in, even if the FTC does not challenge them, Netflix can take paramount to court instead to challenge their deal. The judge will then have to deal with the fact that courts had already ruled that a more limited deal violated anti-trust laws. Heck, there is even a chance it will be the same judge. The Trump admin may not care about hypocricy and being blatantly corrupt, but the courts are more reluctant to contradict themselves so directly
The lower courts have in some instances... Then the appeals get to the Supreme Court who capitulate completely.
There’s no case that Netflix acquiring it is some kind of dangerous monopoly whatsoever.
And 25 billion more debt (Netflix is only assuming around one third of the existing debt).
But they can still achieve some of this without the WB film side of the business... Ultimately they let Netflix take the film studio (Warner Brothers) and it's assets - Zaslov has already said his goal was to split the company back into 2 where one takes the TV side and the other is the film side. The Ellisons just come in and take the TV side with a hostile bid there, save themselves some money in the process. Then they've got full control of CNN.
Paramount is owned and control by Larry Ellison, one of americas richest men
Who made all his money squeezing taxpayers by profiting off of vendor lock.
Larry Ellison is pure evil, and he only wants this to increase the size of his media empire so he can be even more evil than Rubert Murdoch
He's also a personal friend of Netanyahu and wants this to increase Israels propaganda footprint
Okay but netflix was spinning off cnn and such. If that was their primary goal they could easily buy it up once it was spun off
“Raised antitrust concerns” so that they could shit on this deal but approve ellison’s is not a far reach
Netflix isn't great but fuck the Ellisons.
Not to mention paramount will have large scale censorship of anything politically they don’t like
yes look what they did to CBS, they're happy to ruin whatever
Good point. Netflix makes some aggravating business decisions for consumers but the content they produce is what they think want to watch, not what ideology they want to push.
What is the political alignment of paramount?
Glazing orange man to maintain and expand their power.
Their political alignment is not getting sued by Trump or getting their deals cancelled.
Paramount parent company was bought by Larry Ellison's son, David Ellison. Larry Ellison, the owner of oracle, has been coddling up to trump for more power and influence, but his son (the owner of paramount) seems like a true believer in Maga. We already have a consolidation of media, but paramount would probably be the worst actor of the bunch.
They tried to cancel Kimmel cause me made jokes about Trump.
Kimmel is on ABC (Disney). Paramount DID cancel Colbert because he was talking about them too much. They also gutted the CBS news staff and installed a sycophant in charge of the news division.
An incompetent sycophant. She's the epitome of running things on vibes rather than facts.
Technically Colbert wasn't canceled - they didn't renew his contract which was set to end in 2026, which is why his show is still airing atm.
Kimmel was actually canceled (they took him off air immediately even with an active contract) which was why there was such a huge outburst about it which forced Disney to reverse course.
Sure. But at that point you’re getting into technicalities and while correct, obscures the true motivation. Getting back into technicalities, Kimmel also wasn’t cancelled. He was “indefinitely suspended”. But that also wasn’t because Ellison and his business deal needed to be on Trumps good side since he’s on ABC, which was all the purpose of my comment.
And with Netflix acquiring WB, then there would still be the same number of studios with worldwide theatrical distribution of movies. If Paramount buys them, we lose one of those theatrical outlets. And that would be bad.
Quite frankly, it's insane for anyone to consider a Skydance offer. They are clearly leveraged to the hilt already just to complete the current Paramount offer. I wouldn't trust their source of funding for a purchase of WB so soon after that. Nor would I believe the debt to asset ratio over the long term was anything less than disastrous for the combined company.
At this point, Disney might as well step in too...
Disney would have to pay too much in bribes to the regulators to try to get this to pass. There's a reason they didn't even consider it for themselves - the FTC's going to immediately say "hell no," and it'll be five years at the DOJ, even with President Felon at the helm accepting million dollar dinners for deeds done and lubricating the government's wheels.
Skydance's offer is the only other reasonable offer on the table besides Netflix's, and it's not the better offer, even if it's for everything. There's a reason HBO already chose to go with Netflix, and the reason is it better fits the discharge of their assets - they want to settle their debts, not turn into a debt tornado that'll only get sorted out by a bankruptcy court. Netflix is offering cash, and that's what they want.
As long as I don’t have to commit to 2 years like cable they can eat shit and take my one month fee once a year or so
Not just Paramount, every streaming service is pushing for higher and higher fees like cable. There is no difference between streaming and cable at this point. The number of streaming services to watch say NBA games is dumb AF and defeats the entire point of cutting the cable.
There is huge differences between cable and streaming. Yall dont remember how bad cable was
Yeah nobody who's watched a 2 hour movie cut down to 90 then stretched to 3 hours wants cable back.
Streaming is still nothing like cable. Ad free plans exist, everything is on demand, works on all devices, and you can cancel any time. Sports in particular has never been well covered by streaming, so if you care about sports you've never been able to cut the cord anyway. If anything streaming access to sports has improved even if it still sucks.
You're correct when it comes to sports, but for non-live shows the difference is night and day
Netflix's biggest crime is not exclusively making hit shows and movies to fill the void after Disney and the few other major IP owners pulled six decades of holy-survivorship-bias pop content to start their own streaming services.
Paramount also had quite literally nothing but Taylor Sheridan bullshit and other shit boomers like only. They have virtually nothing younger people want except maybe paw patrol and SpongeBob for kids lol. They're in a spot where they almost need WB for HBO properties or they're screwed. They lost Taylor Sheridan.
Most of the planned new CBS shows look like Sheridan rip offs. Marshalls and Sheriffs on horses hunting cars.
Netflix also invests in international productions.
I’m not a fan of Netflix openly trying to kill theatrical releases though. I love the act of getting out of the house and going to a movie theater and watching on the big screen. That experience can’t be replicated at home.
Both companies are awful and industry consolidations like this harm both consumers and workers.
Im not saying you’re wrong, but Netflix is $30.00 a month now unless you want ads or low quality streams. And a some point, even the high end plans will have ads. And account protections make signing in to Netflix already onerous unless you only ever watch on one device, in one location.
All these streaming companies are headed in the same direction and none of them have our best interests at heart.
Hence my second paragraph. Netflix is just a lesser of two evils
Paramount is worse.
Larry Ellison (of Oracle and MAGA donation fame) is heavily involved with this deal. His son owns Paramount after the skydance merger. They also specifically want CNN which was not part of the Netflix deal, which explains why Trump prefers the Paramount deal - he 100% wants them to start firing unfriendly media heads
I will not be paying for anything affiliated with Paramount
You all know behind the scenes Trump is involved and there’s a kickback. I am 100% sure of that.
Paramount is worse for us on levels that are almost incomprehensible. Larry Ellison(Paramount) is David Ellison's son... eventually he may inherit Oracle, and Tik Tok. Paramount cancelled Colbert for government favor for a merger, and now they want Warner Brothers too.
That's the reason he can throw money at it, it's not about profit, it's about control and power over the media.
Other way around, David is Larry's son. The rest is absolutely correct tho
Larry Ellison and David Ellison own Paramount, so Paramount would be the worse outcome by a huge margin.
I think we all know which would be worse. Silver spoon baby David Ellison buying everything he can with his daddy's money would be worse. He got Paramount and Skydance. Also, Larry Ellison and David Ellison are very close to Trump and using that leverage to impact this deal.
Just remember that the harder they compete for the sale, the higher they'll raise subscription fees to offset the cost.
Like showing up to the wedding and begging the bride to give you a chance. Would be hilarious if not for the fact all that money came out of our collective pockets.
Paramount has ingratiated Trump already, haven’t they? Netflix will need to buy some Trump meme coin or DJT stock to keep him from blocking their merger.
This is so pathetic.
Larry Ellison is a major MAGA donor and his son owns Paramount so yeah. They also want CNN as part of the deal and have probably promised to start axing unfriendly media personalities
Affinity Partners, Jared Kushner’s PE firm, is one of those involved with this Paramount bid.
Yeah this’ll be rich after Trump’s tweet about them having too much market share. But oh no paramount would be fine though
Plus Paramount / Larry Ellison has the full support of the Zionist lobby which is significant
I cant wait until “big money” buys up everything it can touch until its just one huge media company. Then it can die off and we can all move on from this hellscape.
It won't. Trump will pump trillions in tax money into it to keep it alive.
Well hopefully it becomes unsustainable for them. Profits really do only go up I guess 🤷♂️
Ultimately it'll go to whoever is willing to "donate" the larger amount to the orange felon.
Paramount set themselves up for that by announcing that they’d allow sex pest Brett Ratner to direct his Rush Hour 4 movie that no one wanted. Why? Because Trump wanted them to, of course.
Trump wanted probably because China wanted. Can't let Saudi Arabia be the only ones buying out our cultural exports.
The actual reason is that Brett Ratner directed that Melania documentary that Amazon paid $40M for (again to appease the president), so Trump is doing his sexual assaulter buddy a solid.
From one rapist to another.
To be fair I’ve been saying for like 4 or 5 years they need to make Rush Hour 4. But I’m also not the President and it’s insane that the president has that as one of his priorities.
Rush Hour 4 being a national priority fits perfectly with this administration.
Realistically speaking, if the FTC interferes with Netflix completing the acquisition, none of the media companies are going to get it - they have the least consolidated position in the media ownership landscape. Netflix's bid is also dramatically the least complicated: here's some cash, this is the stuff we want, shake hands and do the deal. The other bids are heavily leveraged, debt financed, multiple participants... they're a mess by comparison.
If they bounce Netflix's bid and attempt Paramount's, Netflix sues the US government and Paramount, and it's not a case they can win, because it looks like exactly what it is: blatant corruption.
At that point, Warner files bankruptcy, and the court sells off its assets to the highest bidder... which... seems pretty damn silly, when Netflix is offering cash right now.
This is a well thought out argument. It hinges on the courts also not being corrupt.
Exactly!
Only problem is, so few are willing to stick their necks out and tell Trumpty Dumbty no to the blatant corruption.
The Ellison's got down on their knees so fast to slob on the orange man's tiny knob for these reasons.
Trumpty Dumbty wants his cut of everything, otherwise he tells whatever regulatory body that is supposed to be independent on the WH to do what he says. It is so disgusting.
Whoever wins, John Oliver is getting cancelled.
If paramount gets its way it would be really bad for us news as it would include cnn. They already have CBS and would account for a large portion of the flow of information.
The Netflix deal wouldn't include CNN - leaving it there for Paramount to snap up any way
Yeah, this is about the culture war. Prepare for Republican messaging in all the famous WB franchises.
Lex Luthor was the hero the whole time, duh
Since the Paramount owners have ties to the current, blatantly corrupt, administration, I'd wager they will get FCC approval.
Especially since it would put another news outlet under a pro-administration owner.
Jared Kushner is part of Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Of course he is. He's the proxy for the Saudis -- who always have America's best interests at heart...
Oh the Saudis have a direct involvement in this one, Paramounts bid is partially funded by the Saudi Public Investment Fund.
Bari Weiss would probably get CNN
He’s mad at them this morning because of the MTG interview last night. He wants them to apologize.
exit: math is hard on monday mornings, myb
Netflix can always counter, but the Fed has final say and will probably only want to approvethe Paramountoffer, and while their decision can be challenged in court, the SCOTUS won't rule against the administration on something like this.
I bet Netflix will make a fictional series about this. Two media corporations fighting over the carcass of a smaller media competitor. While a corrupt POTUS tries to extort a piece of the winning deal behind the scenes
Crazy that WB Discovery is a carcass of a company.
I feel like that’s how all companies are these days. Just shells of companies with other shells of companies inside of them. It’s like Russian nesting dolls. Literally just billionaires opening up every layer and seeing how they can squeeze a penny out of it before discarding its carcass.
Follow Jack Walsh end up like GE
Actually it's just G. They sold the E to Samsung. They're Samesung now.
lol so stupid but I laughed
This is just Succession unless that’s the joke
It'll be written as two six episode seasons but Netflix will cancel it after the third episode of the first season.
Maybe call it them crooked vultures
Only if they lose. If they win expect that screenplay to get burned
Netflix deal is the lesser of the evils and actually has some potential long term. Paramount is garbage from top to bottom
If we are strictly talking about consumer short term gains, Netflix is an easy choice for almost any media. Its a quality app where people get a lot of their content from already. At least David is being honest however that he doesn't give a shit about his customer base.
That being said its crazy moves like these aren't illegal. Fiduciary duty should not mean direct shareholder value. Netflix shouldn't be able to send me a fucking email on this being a done deal when it hasn't even passed regulatory approval. The media shouldn't be a tool for CEO's to do battle.
They sent out a press release which states in no uncertain terms that the deal is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. I don't know if this is your first time seeing one of these press releases in person, but the language in them is boilerplate - it couldn't be more standardized.
As far as Netflix and Warner Brothers are concerned, the deal is done. This late tendering of a higher bid is too late, and it's not what the Warner Brothers board wanted anyhow.
If the US government interferes with the deal, there's no possible way Paramount's ending up winning out without it looking like the most corrupt government interference in the history of the US government. It's about as straightforward as these M&A deals ever go, and the biggest argument against it - media consolidation - only gets worse when you look at the other bidders.
You sound like you know what you are talking about and i hope you are right
So totally on course for the current administration?
This hostile bid is coming from Larry Ellison’s son. Larry and Oracle is in Trump’s pocket. No question on how this is going to play out.
These rich assholes throwing around fake money to make more fake money should mean nothing to us.
Cancel all your subscriptions and donate all the money to NPR.
Sail the high seas, get an antenna do whatever you have to do just stop giving them money.
Except paramount’s rich asshole is actively trying to gain control of as much media as possible to push his political view points onto the populace. Netflix’s rich asshole is just a rich asshole.
Thank you. The more we argue about these people the more I'm scratching my head over why we give them so much of our time and money.
Why does he look like that
Mar a Lago face isn't just for women anymore
Attention, regulators (if there are ANY of you left):
Bigger NEVER means better.
For the love of all that's holy, BLOCK Warner Bros Discovery's merger with ANY company.
For that matter, break up ALL big media companies.
“All cash offer” where half is funded by new shares, and half by new debt.
So…. Not really “all cash” is it
Trump won’t let WB go to Netflix.
So the plan is basically “what if we stack two debt bonfires to block Netflix.” On paper you get “synergies” and better bargaining power, in practice you get antitrust risk, culture clash, and an even bigger balance sheet problem. Feels more like endgame consolidation than an actual strategy.
Big baby is mad he didn’t win. Throws giant tantrum.
I would rather Netflix own WB than Paramount. Paramount cant even keep their flagship IP's going where Netflix will at least do it properly, but cancel it after the first season.
Best for us consumers is that neither deal goes through
Who is going to give Trump the most to own WB?
Just stop with the foreplay and get it over with create the giant ultra megacorp that controls and rules all
Republicans in congress: "Looks like monopolies are back on the menu, boys!"
Paramount will get it one way or another. Ellison defacto owns Paramount and he's a key Trump ally so Trump can launch an anti trust case against Netflix or do any other kind of shady shit to get them to pull the plug so that Paramount gets WBD. Paramount isnt even raising the money on its own, there's tons of middle eastern money flowing into it just like with EA, this shit stinks.
*with Saudi money and Jared Kusher
Paramount plus app sucks, hopefully they stick with Netflix
This is literally the least of the reasons they should not go with Paramount
Consumer experience is a pretty good reason for an entertainment company.
Whatever happens I’m still just gonna subscribe maybe once a year to watch what came out that’s worth a damn.
What benefit is there in mergers? Can we just ban them outright?
I always imagine Kendall Roy doing coke whenever there is a hostile takeover bid
I don’t want Paramount to own WB. That said the board has a fiduciary responsibility to look at the offer
Circular economy like AI and NVIDIA. Kushner and Palentier CEO are in Paramount. They get favorable governmental treatment for taking WB and making them favorable to the GOP. WB stock is bought up by GOP richies. Money is handed back and forth between rich people. The lay person gets a bombarded with right wing content. Sounds American AF
Jared Kushner and his Saudi pals are involved. Trump wants David Ellison to fire CNN reporters he doesn't like. CNN is owned by WBD.
Corporations are going to own us! Like Alien Earth
Paramount sucks compared to Netflix, their app also sucks
MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP
Fuck Paramount and their Saudi sugar daddies.
I don’t want Paramount anywhere near WB. No censorship and crazy billionaire politics for me.
Funny how they can fire, sorry, "lay off" thousands of loyal employees because "we dont have money" yet they can pull this shit.
I hope they fail and dont get away with this.
So basically, the higher the price tag keeps climbing for Warner Brothers, the more we can expect to pay for a subscriptions? Sweet can’t wait.
Imagine Bari Weiss controlling CNN in addition to CBS.
Hopefully they don't fly any MORE planes into NYC
How do people not understand that this is a MAGA bid to own CNN? Everything else is a smoke screen.
The payoff to Trump is gonna be yuuuuge
Why is Warner up for sale in the first place or is this just a hostile takeover war??
It has an enormous amount of debt
Where did it come from? Discovery? AT&T?
The Turner -> AT&T deal saddled Warnermedia with an enormous amount of AT&T originated debt that Discovery took on as part of the WBD merger. A significant portion has been paid down over the last 3.5 years but it’s still high.
They've been struggling with all sorts of issues for many years and the current CEO who took over ~3 years ago after the WB/Discovery merger (he was CEO of Discovery at the time) has essentially been grooming the company for sale instead of trying to make the company functional again while he put HBO/WB on a race to the bottom for quality of content in the same manner that Discovery embraced under his leadership as he ran it into the ground.
why is this considered hostille? its just a take it or leave it offer lol
Its hostile because it meets the criteria of a hostile takeover. It is bypassing the board and going to the shareholders.
Our country is so fucked. :(
Where's all this money come from and whats the ROI? I can't make this make sense. Thwart what exactly? Feel like someone's going to be left holding the bag here and it's going to be the American people yet again...
Why do those guys look so weird?
Paramount would be worse, they are owned by Zios
So Trump gets involved after his friends at paramount show interest? Interesting.
Netflix might unironically lose because Trump hates Obama . Netflix made a deal about the Obamas.
And Paramount will win because they are in bed with the Trump admin. Who gives a fuck about anti-trust anymore, really?
I have a huge feeling they are fighting for the DC Universe.
This is pure culture wars. They want a movie where Superman deports those criminal illegal Hispanics and Batman beating up those criminal black guys.
They want the Game of Thrones so the white walkers look more like Mexicans to keep them on the other side of the wall.
Paramount/Skydance cannot win this. I already don’t like Netflix but they are the lesser evil here.
Ok... can someone explain if this would even go to the board of WBD? They already agree to sell to Netflix so not sure what this would do? It's not like WBD can rescind and cancel the deal (can thry?). And not even the fact that Netflix is offering 87 Bn for a part of the company and this 101Bn its for the whole company; so on the surface this one looks like the lesser deal.
The administration won't approve the Netflix deal and clear the way for the takeover. They already picked Ellison and Paramount to be the winners since they are willing to bribe the pedo in chief.
I clearly don’t understand how all of this works. I thought Netflix already bought it
Corpo wars type shit
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Was the deal with Netflix already inked? You have to imagine that if it was, Netflix would have some sort of back-out penalty in the agreement.
What are the odds of this working?
I would love to see paramount win. America go back to business as usual and Paramount get hit with massive fines for violating free speech, and warner bros gets handed over to Netflix for free. We need to set a tone that corrupt large corporations are no longer immune.
And this is why Trump is taking about needing to personally get involved.
So much for the GOP believing in free markets…
Paramount is already struggling. If they were to buy Warner Bros, they would be in more debt and they would do another round of layoffs and cancel more shows.
My preference would be for neither to get it, but despite Paramount being trumpy and conservative and a nepo baby, if Netflix gets it, they'll destroy the entertainment industry. Not just movie theaters, but by slowly grinding everything down to garbage and making it impossible for the average person in the industry to make a living.
On the one hand, Paramount reeeeeally looks like a consortium of evildoers (the Saudis, et al) with Ellison as a front. On the other hand, Netflix looks at the rainforest that is the Hollywood ecosystem and thinks "what's the fastest way to clear cut the whole thing?"
At the end of the day, I think evil might be easier to recover from than decimation. I mean, flip a coin, right? But if I was gonna take a guess, David Ellison has the benefit of really only caring about making successful, commercial movies, which means that his moral compass remains flexible.