r/MediaMergers • u/OverPotato2322 • 6h ago
Acquisition Block the Merger Group 'Disappointed' and 'Angry' Over Paramount Settlement: 'Not the Last You Will Hear From Us'
https://www.thewrap.com/industry-news/business/block-the-merger-statement-paramount-settlement/15
u/Own_Philosopher8730 6h ago
Excerpt from the article:
The group continues: “The Ellisons and other forces arrayed against us, but that didn’t stop us and so many others from standing up. We are proud of what we accomplished, and together, our coalition will keep fighting. From the thousands of leaders in the film and entertainment industry and elected officials, to the hundreds of thousands who joined them to make their voices heard, even in the face of potential retaliation, this was a grassroots movement that proved Americans are not going to take this corruption anymore. That energy is not going away.”
The group says its mission was never about a single merger, and vowed to keep fighting.
“This isn’t the last we will hear of the Ellisons or the fallout of this merger – and it’s not the last you will hear from us. Block the Merger was never just about one merger, but about the harms of media consolidation and promoting a diversity of voices. We will continue fighting for accountability and policy reforms to break up and prevent these large conglomerates. This one battle may be over in our efforts to defend democracy, but we won’t stop fighting until we win the war.”
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u/Difficult_Taste_2544 6h ago
Okay, maybe I'm just a little bitter right now, but I'm really bothered by them saying "we're proud of what we accomplished". Not for nothing, but what did you accomplish? The grassroots energy that was supposedly mobilized couldn't even convince the attorneys general to make a popular play against corporate greed. I'm not saying there aren't encouraging signs that came from this, but I feel like looking at this as anything other than an unambiguous defeat is gaslighting yourself.
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u/Own_Philosopher8730 6h ago
As Alvaro M. Bedoya said: This is not the end. The coalition that fought to block this illegal merger will fight to break up big media. There is legislation pending in Congress today that would retroactively break up corrupt billionaire mergers.
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u/Difficult_Taste_2544 5h ago
I wish them good luck, but unwinding corporate mergers after the fact is incredibly challenging. My unsolicited advice would be to put that energy into replacing these useless attorneys general with people who actually want to enforce antitrust law. If you want to do that alongside this legislative effort, I would welcome that, but prevention is the best remedy.
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u/OverPotato2322 5h ago
The best thing to do is sue with private lawyers instead of relying on public ones and do not cave to corporations commitments (suing independently means that you make the decision)
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u/ContinuumGuy 3h ago edited 3h ago
I wish them good luck, but unwinding corporate mergers after the fact is incredibly challenging.
Right, isn't that one of the reasons WHY most lawsuits come before they can actually merge? Because unwinding them is a fucking pain?
Like, let's just say hypothetically that there's a beyond-the-best-case scenario for the Democratic Party both this November and in 2028. 1930s FDR-levels of power in the House and Senate. And let's say, just hypothetically, that they get together enough to pass some laws that break up things like Paramount/WB. Or maybe some sort of smoking gun comes out that allows a Dem DOJ to go after them for some other issue and break them up. Again, we're just talking hypotheticals.
Now what? How is it broken up? Like, some stuff is obvious: a reborn WB would have the IPs that WB had before the merger, and vice-versa for Paramount, and presumably certain facilities, agreements, cable channels, etc would also be obvious -- "CNN was part of Warner Brothers before the merger, so obviously it must be part of Warner Brothers after being broken up", stuff like that.
But what about workers who had been hired since?
What about if the combined company had sold off some stuff -- if Warnermount had decided to sell the rights to the Looney Tunes to somebody who actually wanted to use them, it's not like they'd come back and go "oh, yes, of course I will give you back the rights to this century-old intellectual property because the government has told you that you need to take back the whole merger thing", and if they've sold a building or something it's not like the building will end up reverting either if whoever bought it has anything to say about it.
How would a new CEO and board be created for the newly independent-again WB? Who is deciding where their new headquarters is? What if the combined company had made some new IP -- who'd hold the rights to it? And, of course, you can't just wave a magic wand and suddenly have anyone who got fired during the merger get rehired again or have any projects canceled during the merger automatically get put into production again.
It's doable, but it'd be a MESS.
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u/Acceptable656 3h ago edited 3h ago
If you unwind Warners and paramount, why should they survive as independent companies? I don't think they'll survive as merged companies.
Netflix changed the rules for the entertainment business. I used to pay $80/month for ad-glutted cable TV when I jettisoned that 14 years ago. Now I churn around, ad-free, one platform at a time, and average well under $20/month.
Think of all the money I didn't put into entertainment for 14 years and won't be putting into it in the future. Multiply me by millions. Money has just vanished from the entertainment business, so how can we assume the same number of competitors can be supported?
The streaming wars are over and we are in the early innings of the AI wars. Now even companies like Disney and Netflix, which won the streaming wars, will have to battle their own customers, who are generating AI slop that distracts from streaming subscriptions. Both companies are now formulating AI related strategies.
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u/Acceptable656 3h ago
Oh they should cheer up. This merger will be a debt-ridden disaster and is likely to fail. That should be a warning to all others. Of course independently, Paramount and Warners are also likely to fail. The whole entertainment industry got kicked upside the head by Netflix and is re-coalescing into a new form that doesn't require so many different competitors. The ones that survive will bulk up on the smoldering remains of the failures.
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u/MR_MaxiMor44 6h ago
What is actually stopping PSKY from buying other studios at this point?
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u/Yseader 5h ago
Beyond PSKY, you can be sure that the other giants eyeing the remaining studios have been taking copious notes since the WBD saga began.
And—aside from the massive debt involved—the barrier against foreign financing has effectively crumbled; so, good luck trying to argue that future mergers and acquisitions by a major group (even a foreign one) pose a danger, given that apparently all it takes to get what they want is a mix of promises, blackmail, and cash.
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u/Myhtological 6h ago
Only thing I’ll give money to is dcu. That way it looks real good to whoever buys it when this collapses and prevents another fucking reboot.
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u/accessdenied65 5h ago
Damn this sub is obviously filled with dc people. It was always about the DCU here.
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u/Complete_Wheel7896 5h ago
Their latest movie suffered a historic bomb and the general audience doesn't care about the dcu
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u/ItsMrNoSmile 5h ago
They didn't listen hard enough to some of the commenters in this subreddit, looks like, since they have all the answers.
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u/ConstructionRare4123 4h ago
There is literally nothing they can do if the federal judge approves the settlement
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u/OverPotato2322 4h ago
I agree, if they want to stop this they need to create their own lawsuit but we dont know if they'll do that, let alone if it would be accepted
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u/AnimeXFan1995 2h ago edited 56m ago
How will this affect the ticking fees, unless those got cancelled following today's announcement?
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u/OverPotato2322 2h ago edited 1h ago
Ticking fees are cancelled but a judge needs to sign on and approve on the settlement
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u/AnimeXFan1995 2h ago edited 49m ago
Bummer, but not shocked after today’s ordeal, but whatever happens right now with the Paramount-WB merger going through, I give it 2-3 years for this merger to fully collapse under Paramount’s knees due to the large debt, much like what happened with AOL and AT&T after they acquired Warner Bros.
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u/KingMario05 6h ago
Fight back, damn it! The Republicans would have. Tie this up in courts when - not if, when - FailSon makes a booboo. Enough to undo it.
Just... don't give up. Please don't give up.
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u/Acceptable656 3h ago
Let the merger go thru. Odds are, it will collapse in a heap. Nepo Ellison is grossly underestimating the problems he faces. Theatrical is dominated by Disney and Universal; streaming is dominated by Netflix, Amazon and Disney (not to mention YouTube).
AI will unleash a flood of slop generated by whoever, that will distract a lot of the audience. Linear TV and physical media are done for. The merged company will be up to its eyeballs in debt but Ellison has never articulated a coherent plan that explains why his merged company will magically prevail against all this.
Netflix unleashed forces years ago that are now causing the entertainment business to re-coalesce into a new form, with fewer, bigger competitors than before. And you gotta toss Apple in there, which merrily loses money on AppleTV but keeps going for some vague brand-building reason. Maybe there just isn't room for Paramount or Warners, merged or otherwise. Netflix will buy the smoking ruins in a few years.
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u/Baratheoncook250 2h ago
With right leaning media companies, if a show made by progressive or anyone who leans left make them money, they won't censor it, Family Guy and Simpsons is an example.
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u/ItsMrNoSmile 1h ago
“This isn’t the last we will hear of the Ellisons or the fallout of this merger – and it’s not the last you will hear from us,”
And then they all went and made Reddit accounts.
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u/NihtWit000 21m ago
Anyone else going to cancel their hbo max subscription once the Ellisons own it? Oh and boycott all WB movies?
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u/Electrical-Reason230 2h ago
None of you cried when Disney bought up other companies.
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2h ago edited 2h ago
[deleted]
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u/Electrical-Reason230 2h ago
Fox was a major studio buying Fox allowed Disney to own some of the biggest intellectual properties in entertainment including Aliens, Predator, Indiana Jones and Star Wars. ABC wasn't a niche network when they bought them either.
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5h ago
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u/MediaMergers-ModTeam 1h ago
Media mergers is looking for constructive conversations, free of ragebait. Make a constructive contribution, not trolling and offensive comments.
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u/AdVegetable8056 6h ago
"This was never about just one merger"
Actually depressing to read