WBD Acquisition Thread

[Camping My TV Set]

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/three-gulf-funds-agree-to-back-paramounts-81-billion-takeover-of-warner-04eda364?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n=AWEtsqfBYTJDmy3_wcl6QtJQKuM_7IYtB-NeZ_sqhumqAksWtJa0BApKruDlov1efk8=&gaa_ts=69d42585&gaa_sig=LTES0aOZF0tJRnCSJ3qGEV0VTujyi9L1a_aTobXhJxPYY--fWp6SPsg76WpJKITfu452C2DrM-zdNCVlmlOEPg==



This is behind a paywall but a recent Wall Street Journal article highlights that PSKY wants to fast track its acquisition of WBD by the end of July. If this actually happens, Hollywood is in huge trouble.

for reference, Skydance's acquisition of Paramount in the first place, which was pretty small in the grand scheme of things, took an entire year, and this deal to buy WBD is at least double the size of Disney's buyout of not even all of Fox's assets.

which is to say closing a deal of this size by september, let alone july, is impossible, and the fact he wants this done so quickly tells me that

A. his father, larry, who is very much the brains behind this operation and simply uses his son as a useful idiot to get what he wants, wants to bypass any side effects of current geopolitical affairs to get access to CNN asap

and B. the ellisons do not have the money to pay shareholders the ticking fee, even with ME funds, so now they're betting on basically breaking reality to avoid paying shareholders the extra money they promised

which is to say it's entirely possible this merger is a house of cards that may possibly crumble before the marriage even finalizes

 

[RandomMe]

Now they’ve secured the deal with the Middle East! This better be scrutinized.

Paramount Skydance Secures $24 Billion From Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi Funds for Warner Bros. Deal

Paramount Skydance received commitments of nearly $24 billion to back its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.

variety.com

Ah yes, the "good old" Public Investments Fund we saw a lot in recent years.

 

[Moe]

@awinger24 I do believe that David Ellison is too terrified about AI bubble pops and geopolitical situation that drove him in overambition mode to shareholders.

I do think that most shareholders are skeptical of David Ellison's words but it won't do anything to stop the merger, but they can bet on WBD to get money from higher breakup fee and it will leave a stain on David Ellison's imagery.

for reference, Skydance's acquisition of Paramount in the first place, which was pretty small in the grand scheme of things, took an entire year, and this deal to buy WBD is at least double the size of Disney's buyout of not even all of Fox's assets.

which is to say closing a deal of this size by september, let alone july, is impossible, and the fact he wants this done so quickly tells me that

Yeah, agreed with you about get done in 6 months is completely impossible for two major studios merging that is much more complicated, loads of antitrust issues and much more divisive to the public. Disney-20th Century acquisition was very rough with tons of divestitures and it didn't close until 15 months later. Paramount-WBD would be much worse and messier than Disney-20th Century.

A. his father, larry, who is very much the brains behind this operation and simply uses his son as a useful idiot to get what he wants, wants to bypass any side effects of current geopolitical affairs to get access to CNN asap

When AI bubble pops, his dad would be stressed about Oracle lose billion dollars and he would see CNN as not worth to turn Oracle into financial ruin, so he would tell his son to go on his own or sell Paramount to Sony, and it means Paramount-WBD could collapses.

The linear networks are declining and overhaul the CNN would be guaranteed to get shut down in few years, so it is death sentence as legacy CNN would move to streaming or new linear under new name.

There is example.
Trump: Overhaul CNN to be more like Fox News.
Ellison: Sure, there is new CNN.
Former CNN staffs create new news channel called The News Channel.
Rating for CNN dropped by 90% and rating for The News Channel is up by 300%.
Ellison: We decided to close CNN permanently.
Trump: What??? The News Channel is destroying me badly.
Ellison: Sorry, we don't own it.
Trump realizes that go after media is not worth the effort and end turn into totally hopeless about the future.

Ellison may end up to cut federal government off and fire Bari Weiss, so revert CBS News to original again and they wouldn't face the hostility when new government is coming.

 

[harry580]

@awinger24 I do believe that David Ellison is too terrified about AI bubble pops and geopolitical situation that drove him in overambition mode to shareholders.

I do think that most shareholders are skeptical of David Ellison's words but it won't do anything to stop the merger, but they can bet on WBD to get money from higher breakup fee and it will leave a stain on David Ellison's imagery.


Yeah, agreed with you about get done in 6 months is completely impossible for two major studios merging that is much more complicated, loads of antitrust issues and much more divisive to the public. Disney-20th Century acquisition was very rough with tons of divestitures and it didn't close until 15 months later. Paramount-WBD would be much worse and messier than Disney-20th Century.


When AI bubble pops, his dad would be stressed about Oracle lose billion dollars and he would see CNN as not worth to turn Oracle into financial ruin, so he would tell his son to go on his own or sell Paramount to Sony, and it means Paramount-WBD could collapses.

The linear networks are declining and overhaul the CNN would be guaranteed to get shut down in few years, so it is death sentence as legacy CNN would move to streaming or new linear under new name.

There is example.
Trump: Overhaul CNN to be more like Fox News.
Ellison: Sure, there is new CNN.
Former CNN staffs create new news channel called The News Channel.
Rating for CNN dropped by 90% and rating for The News Channel is up by 300%.
Ellison: We decided to close CNN permanently.
Trump: What??? The News Channel is destroying me badly.
Ellison: Sorry, we don't own it.
Trump realizes that go after media is not worth the effort and end turn into totally hopeless about the future.

Ellison may end up to cut federal government off and fire Bari Weiss, so revert CBS News to original again and they wouldn't face the hostility when new government is coming.

you know what, can we let elon musk takeover Warner bros, at least he didnt owned a movie studio and Warner bros would be elon musk way into the movie market

 

[Moe]

you know what, can we let elon musk takeover Warner bros, at least he didnt owned a movie studio and Warner bros would be elon musk way into the movie market

Elon Musk is more interested into aerospace that is much more expensive than movie studio.

Elon's political opinion is very volatile, depends on scenarios and events, so he can switch the side.

 

[JulianRO]

highlights that PSKY wants to fast track its acquisition of WBD by the end of July.

As always, Ellison has too high ambitions.

 

[zakawer2]

Again, we should still steer clear of certain forms of political discussions (e.g. current geopolitical events in the Middle East, the domestic internal actions of certain Middle Eastern governments whose sovereign wealth funds may or may not be additional undisclosed sources of equity funding for Paramount's acquisition, much discussion about the current U.S. presidential administration not directly related to whether or not the federal government will approve or block the merger, any changes to CNN that may or may not happen should Paramount's acquisition succeed, etc.).

Just focus on stuff like whether or not it'll be approved and the obstacles to doing so; how it might impact the operations of Paramount and of WBD (CNN notwithstanding) both in the U.S. and internationally (especially stuff like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network which are especially relevant to this forum); the debt and possible layoffs, which have the potential to be more severe than anything WBD has ever gone through to date; the possible fate of HBO Max, Paramount+, discovery+, Pluto TV and/or the Paramount stake in SkyShowtime; whether or not shareholders will vote for it on April 23rd; whether it'll get scrutinized by U.S. and global regulators; whether or not the possible involvement of roughly $24 billion worth of equity sourced from foreign wealth funds to finance the merger is even substantial enough to warrant official review or not (despite Paramount believing it to be insignificant enough in practice not to warrant CFIUS review); and whether or not the resulting "Paramount-Warner" will truly be able to live up to its promises seen on places like strongerhollywood.com (e.g. 30 theatrical movies a year, retaining the HBO brand as is with operational autonomy, continuing licensing its content to third-party platforms, maintaining home media releases of its movies, etc.).

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I do think that most shareholders are skeptical of David Ellison's words but it won't do anything to stop the merger, but they can bet on WBD to get money from higher breakup fee and it will leave a stain on David Ellison's imagery.

Isn’t there a shareholders vote on April 23rd? If they are skeptical, they’d vote no on the merger, which would lead to a termination of it.

 

[JulianRO]

Isn’t there a shareholders vote on April 23rd?

Yes, they moved the voting date on that day.

Again, we should still steer clear of certain forms of political discussions (e.g. current geopolitical events in the Middle East, the domestic internal actions of certain Middle Eastern governments whose sovereign wealth funds may or may not be additional undisclosed sources of equity funding for Paramount's acquisition, much discussion about the current U.S. presidential administration not directly related to whether or not the federal government will approve or block the merger, any changes to CNN that may or may not happen should Paramount's acquisition succeed, etc.).

100% agreed.

PSKY wants to fast track its acquisition of WBD by the end of July.

Didn't he forget that the EU exists?
EU is usually more stricter when it comes to reviewing acquisitions, especially immense ones like this.

 

[Moe]

Isn’t there a shareholders vote on April 23rd? If they are skeptical, they’d vote no on the merger, which would lead to a termination of it.

The shareholder vote is more of complicated and it is gambling that where they bet on WBD to get a lot of money from breakup fee from Paramount when merger failed.

After all, you have to remember that Paramount-WBD is extremely risky and some shareholders game to get WBD to collect a lot of money, also they could sue the Ellison.

There is no good picture of shareholder votes because a lot of investment groups own WBD, so shareholder who opposed to merger but want WBD to collect breakup money when merger foiled.

Again, we should still steer clear of certain forms of political discussions (e.g. current geopolitical events in the Middle East, the domestic internal actions of certain Middle Eastern governments whose sovereign wealth funds may or may not be additional undisclosed sources of equity funding for Paramount's acquisition, much discussion about the current U.S. presidential administration not directly related to whether or not the federal government will approve or block the merger, any changes to CNN that may or may not happen should Paramount's acquisition succeed, etc.).

I just included an example to help the members to understand about outcome.

It is impossible to separate between Paramount-WBD and political stuffs because Ellison hardwired between two topics. I just keep at minimal as much as I can.

You have to blame on Ellison for those situation and as for Paramount-WBD merger, events like AI bubble pops, conflicts and geopolitical could directly or indirectly affect the merger, so impact wouldn't be felt until later.

EU is usually more stricter when it comes to reviewing acquisitions, especially immense ones like this.

The court system in the US can be stricter too as long as it meet the definition under antitrust laws and lawyers know about strategies to win the cases.

If Paramount-WBD merger case got entangled in the court with no ETA to get out, so Ellison could be pressured to end the merger as fees start go up and up.

 

[awinger24]

Again, we should still steer clear of certain forms of political discussions (e.g. current geopolitical events in the Middle East, the domestic internal actions of certain Middle Eastern governments whose sovereign wealth funds may or may not be additional undisclosed sources of equity funding for Paramount's acquisition, much discussion about the current U.S. presidential administration not directly related to whether or not the federal government will approve or block the merger, any changes to CNN that may or may not happen should Paramount's acquisition succeed, etc.).

Just focus on stuff like whether or not it'll be approved and the obstacles to doing so; how it might impact the operations of Paramount and of WBD (CNN notwithstanding) both in the U.S. and internationally (especially stuff like Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network which are especially relevant to this forum); the debt and possible layoffs, which have the potential to be more severe than anything WBD has ever gone through to date; the possible fate of HBO Max, Paramount+, discovery+, Pluto TV and/or the Paramount stake in SkyShowtime; whether or not shareholders will vote for it on April 23rd; whether it'll get scrutinized by U.S. and global regulators; whether or not the possible involvement of roughly $24 billion worth of equity sourced from foreign wealth funds to finance the merger is even substantial enough to warrant official review or not (despite Paramount believing it to be insignificant enough in practice not to warrant CFIUS review); and whether or not the resulting "Paramount-Warner" will truly be able to live up to its promises seen on places like strongerhollywood.com (e.g. 30 theatrical movies a year, retaining the HBO brand as is with operational autonomy, continuing licensing its content to third-party platforms, maintaining home media releases of its movies, etc.).

Thank you. It's kinda hard to determine where the merger will go because it is kinda tied to the Ellison's own ambitions. Most of Turner's legacy is in jeopardy. CNN may go away in favor of CBS News. Ellison's will likely favor more of the Paramount / Skydance branding over WB. Expect more SpongeBob and Sonic over Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera.

 

[Moe]

Most of Turner's legacy is in jeopardy. CNN may go away in favor of CBS News. Ellison's will likely favor more of the Paramount / Skydance branding over WB. Expect more SpongeBob and Sonic over Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera.

If it does happen, I'm all for destroy the Paramount brand and throw Ellisons in financial ruins.

Sorry for harsh words but just want to show about how I hate Ellisons a lot.

Paramount-WBD merger won't make customers more excited but it would be more of pessimistic, even crossover episode won't change it. If there is widespread of customers' disappointment to bring Paramount-WBD down, so it means merger fails and they won't beat Netflix nor Disney+.

 

[harry580]

If it does happen, I'm all for destroy the Paramount brand and throw Ellisons in financial ruins.

Sorry for harsh words but just want to show about how I hate Ellisons a lot.

Paramount-WBD merger won't make customers more excited but it would be more of pessimistic, even crossover episode won't change it. If there is widespread of customers' disappointment to bring Paramount-WBD down, so it means merger fails and they won't beat Netflix nor Disney+.

will, I don't see the paramount brand gets destroyed, it can be given to bob bakish for all I care, but ellisons deserved to go, they becoming more worst than redstones (at least redstones has a perfect beginning)

 

[JulianRO]

I find it interesting how Ellison is so confident that the buyout will complete in September, or recently, even in July.

Like Warner Bros. is just a small, "street abandoned" company.

Wondering how he would react if the EU would reject the buyout.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I doubt the people at Warner will want this.

Paramount Skydance Confirms Investments by Middle Eastern Wealth Funds for Warner Bros. Deal, Cites ‘Potential for Strategic and Commercial Opportunities’ With Them

David Ellison's Paramount Skydance on Tuesday confirmed that it has brought on the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi as investors in connection with its Warner Bros. Discovery takeover bid.

variety.com

 

[Moe]

will, I don't see the paramount brand gets destroyed, it can be given to bob bakish for all I care, but ellisons deserved to go, they becoming more worst than redstones (at least redstones has a perfect beginning)

There is one way to push Ellison out, sorry.

 

[John Pannozzi]

There is one way to push Ellison out, sorry.

I just want/hope for someone half way competent to pull Paramount Skydance and WBD's library and assets out of the ashes once this all said and done.

 

[harry580]

you hear it folks, we need to reform blue sky studios and buy the assets of paramount or Warner bros or both

 

[Moe]

you hear it folks, we need to reform blue sky studios and buy the assets of paramount or Warner bros or both

Can't do anything with Blue Sky Studios unless Disney decides to sell that is highly unlikely.

I just forgot about Blue Sky Studios long time ago and I just see Paramount-WBD as real threat to both studios.

 

[harry580]

Can't do anything with Blue Sky Studios unless Disney decides to sell that is highly unlikely.

I just forgot about Blue Sky Studios long time ago and I just see Paramount-WBD as real threat to both studios.

go file a lawsuit, that's works with seaworld & sesame street