Tag: Warner Bros Discovery

Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery to become Skydance

Posted on by faz_business


Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will operate as Skydance once their merger closes, Paramount CEO David Ellison announced Friday. Skydance is the name of Ellison’s original film production company.

The roughly $110 billion deal is expected to close October 6. It will combine two major Hollywood studios, Paramount+ and HBO Max, and networks including CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central, and Food Network. Skydance will also control franchises such as “The Lord of the Rings,” “Game of Thrones,” the DC Universe, and “Yellowstone.”

The merger followed a drawn-out corporate battle. Netflix had agreed to acquire Warner Bros.’ streaming and studio businesses before the broader Paramount deal moved forward. Twelve states challenged the deal, arguing it could reduce competition and harm consumers and workers, but a judge approved a settlement with the state attorneys general this week.

Ellison said the Paramount and Warner Bros. brands will remain central. “We never wanted a new corporate identity to diminish, alter or overshadow either one,” he wrote on X. The new name, he said, gives the company “an identity of its own” while letting both studios “remain in the spotlight.”

Warner Bros. lawsuit accuses Amazon of illegally poaching executives

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Warner Bros. Discovery filed a lawsuit this week accusing Amazon of interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, and unfair competition.

As reported by Deadline, the lawsuit alleges Amazon has been “hurriedly seeking to pirate away a number of contracted employees,” including Pia Barlow, an HBO Max marketing executive who recently joined Amazon MGM Studios. Warner Bros. (whose pending acquisition by Paramount has been paused for at least a few months) said Barlow’s employment contract was “not set to expire until October 31, 2027.”

“In blatant disregard of established California law, Amazon has gone rogue by attempting to induce Plaintiffs’ employees with term employment agreements to breach those agreements with impunity, backed up with the ready assurance that Amazon will defend and indemnify them should they be held to account for their blatantly unlawful acts,” Warner Bros. said.

The company also accused Amazon of seeking to “tortiously induce another WBD employee to breach their term employment agreement, which was not set to expire until December 2027,” although that executive (believed to be HBO programming executive Francesca Orsi) ultimately stayed at Warner Bros.

Deadline noted that this lawsuit is likely to renew debates about whether term employment agreements are actually enforceable under California law.

Amazon MGM Studios declined to comment.

Paramount goes to war with Netflix for Warner Bros. Discovery with hostile $108.4B bid

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Paramount Skydance on Monday launched a hostile, $108.4 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), days after Warner agreed to be acquired by Netflix for $82.7 billion.

Paramount is going straight to WBD’s shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share, and it noted that its offer provides shareholders $18 billion more cash than the Netflix deal, which offered $23.25 in cash and $4.50 in Netflix shares for a total of $27.75 per share.

Paramount is bidding for all of WBD, while Netflix’s deal with the company only includes its Hollywood studios and streaming business.

CNBC reported on Monday that these were the very terms from Paramount that WBD’s board rejected a week ago.

“We believe the WBD Board of Directors is pursuing an inferior proposal which exposes shareholders to a mix of cash and stock, an uncertain future trading value of the Global Networks linear cable business and a challenging regulatory approval process,” Paramount CEO David Ellison said in a statement.

Paramount’s offer is backstopped with equity financing from the Ellison family and the private-equity firm RedBird Capital, in addition to $54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo.

Netflix came out on top on Friday after winning a bidding war against Paramount and Comcast, but Paramount’s hostile bid is sure to drag on the battle for one of Hollywood’s most iconic studios, a fight which has already stretched out for months.

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Netflix’s proposed deal has already raised antitrust questions, as it would combine two of the most popular streaming platforms into one. Additionally, President Donald Trump has said the deal “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined companies’ market share.

A deal between WBD and Paramount would also likely raise similar concerns.

Netflix agreed to pay WBD $5.8 billion if the deal doesn’t go through. WBD would have to pay Netflix $2.8 billion if the deal collapses.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.