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Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav had nothing but love for David Ellison's Paramount Skydance during a town hall earlier today.
Posted in: Movies, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: netflix, paramount, Warner Bros
WBD/Paramount "Envy" of Industry; 6-12 Months for Approval: Zaslav
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav had nothing but love for David Ellison's Paramount Skydance during a town hall earlier today.
Article Summary
- WBD CEO David Zaslav praises Paramount Skydance, calling WBD the "envy of the industry."
- Zaslav says a Paramount-WBD merger could make the combined company bigger and stronger overall.
- Approval for the Paramount deal could take 6 to 12 months, with no closure guaranteed.
- If the merger falls through, WBD secures $7 billion and plans to continue business as usual.
Less than 24 hours after Netflix decided to walk away from revising its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) $2.8 billion richer and with Wall Street liking the decision, it's now up to David Ellison to do what no other company has been able to do while dealing with the ton of debt that would come from a Paramount-WBD merger. Of course, this is far from a done deal. Even if the Trump Administration is looking to rubber-stamp the approval for one of Trump's allies, there's still the matter of the states' attorneys general, the EU, and others having a say. But for WBD CEO David Zaslav, who was reportedly joined by Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, it was all about easing the fears of many WBD folks who aren't too optimistic about the company's future.
Speaking at a town hall meeting for employees earlier today (and based on a leaked audio recording shared with Business Insider), Zaslav claimed that WBD is "the envy of all of the industry," adding that he thought WBD and Paramount "can be a great company. We're getting bigger, and we're getting stronger." The man who botched WBD's NBA deal noted that the deal with Ellison "all happened very quickly," and that it "feels a little whiplash-y," with the WBD board still "getting our bearings."
As for why the deal needed to happen, Zaslav explained that Paramount was key to the company's survival (just as he did when Netflix was still in play). "If Warner Bros. is going to survive, then we needed to be bigger, and we needed to be global," Zaslav argued, adding without offering concrete examples that "some of these companies are getting so big that they can just run us over." As for the regulatory approval process, Zaslave estimates it could take at least 6 to 12 months, if it happens. "The deal may not close," Zaslav noted. "If it doesn't close, we get $7 billion, and we get back to work."
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