Discovery and Paramount Skydance aisles on Monday was shock and surprise over the sudden turn of events. And now that Paramount-WB merger has the all-clear signal, staffers are gearing up for what are expected to be multiple rounds of layoffs in the next few months. On Sunday, it appeared that the pushback against the state attorneys general to quickly settle was gaining strength.
By the evening, with the Yom Kippur holiday looming, there was a sense that no deal was imminent. So Monday’s announcement of the settlement between Paramount and the 12 state AGs was met with some disbelief — and a feeling by insiders at both companies that the states ultimately didn’t succeed in demanding much from Paramount Skydance, despite all their posturing. And, according to staffers on both sides, whether the reality of a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. has produced relief or anxiety “depends on where you sit.” “Everybody just wants to know what’s coming,” said an exec.
SoCal-based staffers breathed a little easier after Paramount chief David Ellison’s affirmed that the company will remain in California, after weeks of uncertainty and saber-rattling — sources familiar with the situation had asserted the CEO was serious about pulling up stakes if the WBD deal didn’t close by the end of September. Our history is here and this is where our future is being built,” Ellison said in a statement. But one source told Variety that people were “pissed and disappointed” with the AGs and not confident in the concessions that they received, and don’t see much value in them or an ability to manage those deal points.
After all, there wasn’t a single mention in the 12-state antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the merger of what it means to now bring together Warner Bros. TV (which currently produces around 80 series) and CBS Studios (around 60 series). And that doesn’t even include other production entities, like HBO’s massive in-house unit and Paramount TV Studios.
The small nod to cable TV also surprised observers, especially since California Attorney General Rob Bonta had made such noise about needing to see some actionable example of a concession. Instead, the agreement didn’t even pay lip service by forcing the merged entity to get rid of any of its little-watched zombie channels. Instead, those channels (which don’t provide much value anyway, and could easily just be shut down) would only be on the chopping block as punishment down the line.
With no divestitures, a promise of additional production that had already been made and a tough-to-enforce news independence board, critics of the plan didn’t see much meat to the agreement. Now, the clock resets to just about two weeks before the deal closes — and people who had been concerned by how quickly Paramount had been racing to close the merger are once again distressed at the speed. Of course, a lot of work had been done in the background over recent months, including meetings between groups to figure out workstream, so the new structure of the company should be forthcoming.
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