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Tag: Paramount Skydance

  • Netflix backs out of Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war

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    For anyone who has been following the soap opera unfolding between Netflix and Paramount Skydance over the past few months in their financial brinksmanship to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the saga may be nearing its end. Today, WBD said its board of directors have determined that the latest offer from Paramount Skydance amounted to the better proposal. The media outfit gave Netflix four business days to match Paramount’s terms, but the streamer didn’t waste any time in declining to raise its own bid.

    “We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the US,” the statement from Netflix  co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”

    In addition to the purchase price of $31 per WBD share, Paramount’s latest offer also included a provision that it would cover the $2.8 billion termination fee that WBD would owe to Netflix for dissolving the existing merger agreement between the businesses. So rather than paying $82.7 billion to acquire the Warner Bros. part of the operation, it appears Netflix may walk away with no new content but padding its coffers with an extra nearly $3 billion.

    After Netflix’s initial offer, Paramount Skydance swooped in with a hostile takeover attempt of the entire Warner Bros. Discovery business. WBD rejected it, Paramount tried again. Several additional volleys between the involved parties occurred over the past few weeks. While WBD has not yet formally accepted Paramount’s offer — which will be subject to long-winded regulatory approvals sure to spark more drama — it seems the dust will soon settle for this chapter.

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    Anna Washenko

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  • David Ellison extends deadline for Warner Bros. Discovery takeover offer

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    Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison is apparently still hopeful that investors will approve his $108.4 billion hostile takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance announced Thursday that it’s extending its all-cash offer to acquire the storied studio, and giving investors until February 20, 2026 to accept. The company’s previous offer expired on January 21, but with a lawsuit in the works and a revised Netflix deal to compete with, Paramount Skydance wants to stay in the conversation.

    Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery originally announced their $82.7 billion acquisition agreement in December 2025. Netflix’s deal is for a significant portion, but notably not all, of Warner Bros. Discovery as it exists today. If approved, the streaming service would acquire Warner Bros. film studios, New Line Cinema, HBO, HBO Max, the company’s theme parks, game studios and select linear channels like TNT, but not the collection of reality TV and news programming that Warner Bros. Discovery calls “Global Networks.”

    Paramount Skydance made its competing offer of $108.4 billion for all of Warner Bros. Discovery a few days later in December, with the recommendation that shareholders reject the Netflix deal. To add pressure, Paramount Skydance also sued Warner Bros. Discovery in January alleging that the company had not provided adequate information about why it favored Netflix over Paramount. Beyond offering more money, Paramount contends its deal is more likely to be approved by regulators because owning Warner Bros. doesn’t “entrench Netflix’s market dominance.” Warner Bros. Discovery claims that funding for Paramount’s deal “remains inadequate” and that the company is uncertain Paramount Skydance will actually be able to complete the deal.

    David Ellison was previously able to merge Skydance with Paramount using the financial backing of his billionaire father Larry Ellison, and the Ellison family’s friendly relationship with the Trump administration. Promising to make sure that CBS News represents “a diversity of viewpoints” via a newly appointed ombudsman, and that the merged Paramount Skydance won’t create any diversity, equity and inclusion programs was enough to get the FCC to approve the merger. Ellison might have thought acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery would be equally easy, but at least so far that hasn’t worked out as planned.

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    Ian Carlos Campbell

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  • Warner Bros. Decides Buyer – Los Angeles Business Journal

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    Netflix Inc. has forged ahead of Paramount Skydance Corp. in bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

    Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors rejected Paramount’s $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid Dec. 17. The Burbank-based legacy film studio’s board called Paramount’s offer “inadequate” and “illusory” – even said it “poses significant risk” to its shareholders. The board raised questions about Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison and his billionaire father Larry Ellison’s commitment to back the deal. The latest Paramount offer includes a $40.65 billion equity funding, which would come from a revocable trust fund.

    In a letter to shareholders, the board pointed out that assets could be taken out of the “unknown and opaque” trust fund at any point, in which case Warner Bros. Discovery will have no recourse.

    “This offer once again fails to address key concerns that we have consistently communicated to Paramount,” said Samuel A. Di Piazza Jr., chair of the Warner Bros. Discovery board of directors. “We are confident that our merger with Netflix represents superior, more certain value for our shareholders and we look forward to delivering on the compelling benefits of our combination.”

    In the letter, Warner Bros. Discovery board called out the dozens of calls and meetings with Paramount, including four in-person meetings and meals between Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav and the Ellisons. Paramount was given “multiple opportunities” to offer a superior proposal but never did.

    “PSKY has consistently misled (Warner Bros. Discovery) shareholders that its proposed transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison family. It does not, and never has,” the board wrote.

    Warner Bros. Discovery also raised concerns about the timeline. It could take a year or more to jump over regulatory hurdles, and the time-consuming process could impact business operations. Bloomberg News reported that Paramount is not giving Warner Bros. Discovery enough flexibility to manage its business or its balance sheet.

    Ellison, however, isn’t giving up easily and plans to “move forward” in presenting his offer.

    “Our proposal clearly offers (Warner Bros. Discovery) shareholders superior value and certainty, a clear path to close, and does not leave them with a heavily indebted sub-scale linear business,” Ellison said in a statement. He added that he’s “encouraged by the feedback” his company has received from some Warner Bros. shareholders and this his proposal “is in the best interest of (Warner Bros. Discovery) shareholders, consumers, and the creative industries.”

    Ellison has previously presented six offers to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount said the company has refused to engage in any negotiating session or provide mark-ups of transaction documents since the first offer was made in September. Jared Kushner’s investment fund Affinity Partners under A Fin Management also backed out of the deal, CBS News reported.

    “With ​two ​strong competitors ​vying to secure ​the future ​of this ​unique American ​asset, ​Affinity ​has ​decided no longer to pursue ​the opportunity,” said an Affinity spokesperson in a statement. “The dynamics ​of the investment have changed significantly ​since we initially became ​involved ​in October.”

    Netflix’s stock has declined by 0.6% to close at $94 a share Dec. 18 since the announcement, while Warner Bros. Discovery’s dropped by 4% to close at $27.61. Paramount’s stock also dropped by 6% to close at $13.01.

    Ellison has been determined to close the deal since his company issued in September an unsolicited offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery at $19 a share. That price has since climbed to $30 a share for its entire business in his latest all-cash hostile bid to take the deal from Netflix, and Paramount has indicated that’s not the final price it’s willing to pay.

    Netflix, on the other hand, offered $27.75 a share for Warner Bros. Studios’ streaming and studio division, totaling $72 billion in equity value. The global networks division would be separated into a publicly traded division named Discovery Global next year. The offer gives Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders $23.25 in cash, $4.5 in shares of Netflix common stock and retained equity in Discovery Global, valued at approximately $3 to $4 per share by analysts. That would put Netflix’s offer just over $30 per share, outbidding Paramount.

    Some Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders have been in talks with the hedge fund Standard General about acquiring all or part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s network assets including CNN, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

    Many within the industry voiced concerns over the deal, from iconic actors like Jane Fonda to “The Office” producer Mike Schur. Some worried over Netflix’s proposed shortening of the exclusive theatrical release windows, which Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos previously criticized as not “consumer friendly.” He has apparently changed his mind.

    “Netflix and Warner Bros. complement each other, and we’re excited to combine our strengths with their theatrical film division, world-class television studio, and the iconic HBO brand, which will continue to focus on prestige television,” Sarandos said in a statement. “We’re also fully committed to releasing Warner Bros. films in theaters, with a traditional window, so audiences everywhere can enjoy them on the big screen.”

    Sarandos and Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters also addressed concerns about “the end of Hollywood” in a memo to Netflix staff, which was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “This deal is about growth: Warner Bros. brings businesses and capabilities we don’t have, so there’s no overlap or studio closures,” the two wrote. “We see this as a win for the entertainment industry, not the end of it.”

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    staff-author

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  • HBO’s Crown Jewel Status Shapes the Battle for Warner Bros. Discovery

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    HBO delivers the legitimacy and value no rival can replicate. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Discovery

    There’s a particularly trenchant quote from HBO’s House of the Dragon that keeps popping into my head as major media companies jockey for position in pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery: “Aegon Targaryen sits the Iron Throne. He wears the Conqueror’s crown, wields the Conqueror’s sword, has the Conqueror’s name. He was anointed by a septon of the Faith before the eyes of thousands. Every symbol of legitimacy belongs to him.” 

    Symbols are assets that can be leveraged for value in different ways. Zooming out to House of the Dragon’s home network, HBO finds itself in a position to be an integral symbol of legitimacy and value in the WBD sweepstakes. As all publicly circle the wagons, it’s time to explore the premium cable network’s merits and which company would benefit most from its addition.

    This article contains a plethora of data points that highlight whitespace opportunities and strategic value in the market. But it’s not always the quantifiable elements that yield the greatest benefits. HBO’s multi-decade track record as a culture-shaping authority cannot be summed up in an Excel sheet.  

    “It is not merely a content library; rather, it is a brand that stands for prestige and audience trust, meaning an acquirer instantly uplevels its brand value with the acquisition, as well as attracts unrivaled talent,” Andrew Cussens, CEO of content studio Film Folk, told Observer.

    This very notion was recently demonstrated when WBD re-rebranded its streaming service to HBO Max. The name carries weight throughout the industry while certain rival brands still search for a defined identity that elicits strong audience associations. The data backs up its position as a go-to destination and an illuminating opportunity.

    HBO and HBO Max by the numbers

    WBD’s streaming platforms had 128 million subscribers at the end of September, with the vast majority belonging to HBO Max. (Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers.) It’s a hits-driven platform that values prestige quality over quantity. That’s incredibly valuable, but it can run counter to mass market ambitions. 

    For example, The Last of Us Season 2 and The White Lotus Season 3 rank among the most-watched U.S. streaming series of 2025, according to Samba TV’s State of Streaming report. Yet, HBO Max only accounts for 7 percent of the Top 100 most-streamed series overall, per Samba, while WBD’s share of U.S. streaming sits at just 1.3 percent, per Nielsen, respectively. Even as the majority of viewing for HBO series occurs on streaming vs linear, HBO Max remains a top-heavy platform that accounts for a surprisingly small slice of the U.S. TV pie despite its namesake brand’s prestige.

    From Watchmen and Penguin to House of the Dragon and It: Welcome to Derry, HBO has worked wonders in elevating brand-name intellectual property and franchise fare in pursuit of greater viewership (while still succeeding with more standard “prestige” fare like The White Lotus and Task). This raises the question: has it reached its scalable ceiling? 

    “There is definite upside in the number of subscribers and revenue-per-viewer, and HBO Max hasn’t saturated either,” Samba TV CEO and co-founder Ashwin Navin told Observer. “By adding new tier-one shows and tentpoles, they can continue to broaden their audience base. With more subscribers on the ad-tier, combined with more precision targeting and data, there’s definitely room to grow monetization. The ceiling is much higher with the right investment and growth strategy.”

    HBO is already doing most of the heavy lifting for HBO Max, especially when compared to its high-minded cable counterparts. HBO titles account for 14 percent of the streamer’s library, but more than 18 percent of its audience demand, according to Parrot Analytics. That tops Showtime on Paramount+ (7.2 percent supply vs. 7.3 percent demand) and FX on Hulu (3.6 percent vs. 4.6 percent). 

    Who stands to gain the most if WBD is sold?

    For better and for worse (mostly the latter), Hollywood is chasing scale to compete. Yet, no one is talking about the potential overlap when it comes to possible streaming combos. Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix could all stand to gain from HBO’s prestige pricing power, but face challenges to continue scaling without sacrificing quality. 

    Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults who subscribe to HBO Max also subscribe to Netflix, according to Greenlight Analytics, where I work as Director of Insights & Content Strategy. About 40 percent of HBO Max subscribers also use Paramount+, while only 20 percent overlap with Peacock.

    “Either Paramount or Comcast would benefit the most,” Hernan Lopez, founder and CEO of media/tech management consulting firm Owl & Co., told Observer. “They would immediately more than double their global revenue and profits from streaming, and the size of the library — both for their own streaming services as well as strategic leverage for negotiation with Netflix.”

    The end result for each suitor would be different. Generally speaking, we’re talking about more subscribers, greater pricing power, higher combined lifetime value per customer, higher engagement, lower churn and so on. On paper, that’s awfully tantalizing, though not without its obstacles. 

    “Netflix would only fully realize the value of buying WB streaming and studios if it keeps the TV and theatrical studios open, which would mean being willing to make and sell shows to third parties and distribute in theaters—things they haven’t done so far,” Lopez noted. Despite nudges in the theatrical direction, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said as recently as April that movie theaters are an “outmoded idea.” Oof. 

    Interestingly, 78 percent of 2025 HBO Max engagement was directed at titles released before 2025, the second-highest rate among the premium streamers, per Samba. That speaks to the enduring power of HBO’s treasured library and the appointment-viewing gaps between high-profile HBO releases. On the flip side, Peacock (64%) boasts the largest share of engagement dedicated to programming that debuted in 2025. Meanwhile, Paramount+’s male-skewing originals fit well with HBO Max’s female-leaning audience. To Lopez’s points, one can see the non-Netflix fits. 

    It would be media malpractice to see HBO reduced to a mere tile in another company’s crowded streaming ecosystem. The small screen’s crown jewel deserves better than that, not only for its reputational value but for the tangible results it yields. Yes, time spent has become the all-powerful quarry of every streaming platform. No, HBO is not a content firehose designed to constantly scratch that itch. But much like the throne, crown and sword, the validation it offers is the first step in empowering whomever its parent company may be to rule the realm.

    HBO’s Crown Jewel Status Shapes the Battle for Warner Bros. Discovery

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    Brandon Katz

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  • Bari Weiss’ First Weeks at CBS News: ‘60 Minutes’ Miss, Hunt for New Talent, Concerns Over Union Status at Free Press

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    Bari Weiss is poised to revamp one of the nation’s most venerable down-the-middle news outlets, CBS News. The question is, will she be able to make money for corporate parent Paramount Skydance after doing so?

    The query is legitimate. Paramount executives believe Weiss, named editor in chief of CBS News earlier this month as part of an acquisition of her digital opinion site, The Free Press, will bring “a sense of energy and fearlessness” to the home of “60 Minutes” and “CBS Evening News,” according to a person familiar with the company. Paramount brass were particularly impressed by a segment shown on the most recent telecast of “60 Minutes,” this person says, featuring a sit-down with Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, with the pair detailing for correspondent Lesley Stahl how they helped broker a seeming peace between Israel and Hamas.

    The trouble? The telecast was one of the lowest-rated broadcasts of “60 Minutes” in the early weeks of the current season. The show, crimped by a late-running NFL game which delayed “60 Minutes” in New York, lured an average of 6.9 million viewers overall, and 946,000 among people between 25 and 54, according to Nielsen data, compared with nearly 10.2 million viewers overall, and nearly 2.1 million viewers between 25 and 54, the previous week. Overall viewership fell 32% from the prior week, according to Nielsen, and 54% among viewers between 25 and 54 — the demographic coveted most by advertisers in news programming.

     Such ups and downs aren’t unusual for “60,” which can see ratings spike after an NFL broadcast. Still, the numbers are below the average audience for the show, which came to nearly 8.6 million viewers last season, when the 2024 presidential election goosed viewership. The network was encouraged by attention the interview of Witkoff and Kushner received online, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    In the TV news business, scoops matter. But so too does sizzle — promotion of a big interview, parceling it out among several programs — and Weiss, who has no previous experience running an editorial operation the size of CBS News or producing TV programs, needs to master it.

    There are many in the newsroom who hope she can. And there are still others who do not understand what she intends to do in her new perch or how she will go about doing it.

    Upon completion of her deal with Paramount, Weiss hailed the transaction as “a great moment for the Free Press.” People are still trying to determine what it means for the news division over which she now presides.

    No one seems able to articulate the relationship between Free Press, which is still publishing stories, and CBS News, which has featured Weiss’ sister and “Free Press” cofounder Suzy Weiss on programs. Are the two part of a single unit? Is “Free Press” bound by the same ethics and newsgathering standards as CBS News? There is some concern among CBS News staffers, according to two people familiar with the matter, that “Free Press,” which is not unionized, will not be bound by the same workplace policies as CBS News, where many employees are represented by Writers Guild of America. Weiss recently hired Adam Rubenstein as a deputy editor of “Free Press,” a move CBS News staffers anticipate will give him some say in the newsgathering direction of CBS News. And yet, CBS News’ union will expect its contract to be honored, even by “Free Press” personnel.

    CBS News declined to make executives available for comment. A spokesman for WGA’s East Coast operations did not respond to a query seeking comment.

    Inside CBS News, employees have some hope Weiss can help boost the viewership of the company’s streaming properties, which aren’t pulling in the audience executives might like. While CBS News was early to join the streaming game, it hasn’t maximized its efforts to the extend that NBC News has, which operates a stand-alone streaming outlet devoted to “Today” and a live-streaming service for national news called NBC News Now. In recent months, CBS merged its national newsgathering business with its local stations and has tapped personnel from both sides to create new streaming formats and programs, including a show that takes viewers to news stories covered by local stations in “whip-around” style.

    There is also a sense that some of CBS News’ best-known programs are in for an overhaul.

    Weiss has already leaped to help book newsmakers for segments on CBS News programs, setting Norah O’Donnell to moderate a panel discussion online with former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleeza Rice, and arranging an interview between Tony Dokoupil and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s notable that such assignments weren’t given to the current “CBS Evening News” anchors, Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, who preside over a retooled show that uses a dual-anchor format and has tried to focus more heavily on enterprise stories rather than breaking headlines — and seen viewership drop noticeably as a result.

    Despite the recent spotlight on O’Donnell and Dokoupil, CBS News executives have begun making outreach to talent agencies in hopes of luring new anchors to the fold, according to three people familiar with the matter. CBS News has tried to find out what journalists might be available in case the offer of a job comes their way, these people say, and would be amenable to putting these people in new places at CBS News even ahead of internal candidates — at least for now.

    Such queries aren’t atypical when new management comes into a news division. CBS News reached out in similar fashion to agents after Neeraj Khemlani took the reins at CBS News in 2021, according to two people familiar with the matter, eager to see if potential candidates who worked elsewhere might be near a negotiating window in their contracts.

    The move to inject new talent into CBS News spotlights the fact that no matter what new policies and projects Weiss brings, a host of old challenges remain — and may be of more critical economic importance to Paramount Skydance than any ideas she has on the caliber of reporting and journalism.

    “CBS Evening News” and “CBS Mornings” have long been mired in third place, partially the result of CBS losing affiliates in 1994 after ceding NFL rights to a still-nascent Fox. But the network can perform well, often notching first-place wins in primetime and late night (CBS will likely lose that distinction next year after it shuts down “The Late Show,” hosted by Stephen Colbert).

    Weiss will also have to grapple with what will likely be a much-scrutinized talent decision. The contract of Gayle King, the well-liked co-anchor of “CBS Mornings,” expires in 2026, according to three people familiar with the matter. Renewing King is always “a question mark,” says one of these people, as the host often debates about whether to continue and how to balance her job with her family. At a time when CBS News’ corporate parent is cutting costs and laying off staff, it’s not clear whether Paramount will want to continue paying the morning host her current salary, and whether King would want to continue if asked to take a cut.

    Weiss has shown early skill in landing good “gets” for CBS News. But there’s a lot more she’ll have to master in coming months — with little time to get it right.

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    Brian Steinberg

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  • Paramount Skydance Mass Layoffs to Start Week of Oct. 27

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    Paramount Skydance employees are facing a broad across-the-board culling under David Ellison’s new management regime the week of Oct. 27, Variety has confirmed.

    Major job cuts have been expected even before the Skydance Media-Paramount Global deal closed, as part of Ellison and his team’s goal of slashing upwards of $2 billion in costs. Previously, the company had been targeting layoffs by early November. The new round of cuts is expected to eliminate around 2,000 jobs in the U.S., with additional layoffs internationally.

    At an Aug. 7 press conference in New York, just hours after the $8 billion Skydance-Paramount merger officially closed, Jeff Shell, the ex-CEO of NBCUniversal who is now president of Paramount Skydance, told reporters that the company would make cost cuts and layoffs as swiftly as possible and be disclosed by the company’s third-quarter 2025 earnings report to investors in November. On Friday, Paramount Skydance announced it will report Q3 financial results on Nov. 10 after the market closes.

    Like other traditional media companies, Paramount — parent of CBS, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+ and Pluto TV, MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET — has seen longer-term downturns in traditional advertising and distribution revenue as pay-TV subscribers shift toward streaming.

    As of Dec. 31, 2024, according to Paramount’s most recent 10-K annual filing with the SEC, the company had about 18,600 full- and part-time employees in 32 countries worldwide. (Two years earlier, Paramount’s headcount was 24,500.) Prior to the closing of the Skydance deal, Paramount made additional layoffs, including a 3.5% reduction of its domestic staff in June. Meanwhile, Skydance’s website says it has “more than 500” employees.

    Even as Paramount Skydance is gearing up to slash jobs, it has inked new deals investing more heavily in content. A week after Skydance took over, Paramount announced a $7.7 billion seven-year deal for exclusive UFC rights, a deal with Activision to make a movie based on “Call of Duty,” and the acquisition of Bari Weiss’ The Free Press for a reported $150 million. The company also recently lured the Duffer Brothers, creators of “Stranger Things,” over from Netflix with a new four-year exclusive pact to make movies, shows and streaming programming.

    Meanwhile, Ellison — chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance — is angling to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in what would be a much larger M&A action than the takeover of Paramount Global. WBD reportedly rejected Paramount’s $20-per-share offer as too low. The Ellison family has 100% voting control over Paramount Skydance; the Paramount-Skydance deal was largely bankrolled by Oracle founder Larry Ellison (David’s father).

    Ellison has made a series of C-level hires since the deal closed, including Makan Delrahim, who advised Skydance on its acquisition of Paramount Global, as chief legal officer; former Meta exec Dane Glasgow as chief product officer; and Roku’s Jay Askinasi as chief revenue officer. Other appointments include Cindy Holland, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, who play key roles at Paramount’s streaming and film divisions. George Cheeks, who oversaw CBS before the deal, has remained at the company with the new title of “Chair of TV Media.”

    In a July 2024 presentation to investors after the Skydance deal with Paramount and Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. was announced, Shell said the Skydance team, working with consulting firm Bain & Co., had identified at least $2 billion in potential annualized cost savings at the combined company. At the time, Shell indicated much of those cost cuts will come from its linear TV business.

    Paramount’s plans to commence layoffs the week of Oct. 27 were reported previously by Deadline.

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    Todd Spangler

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  • CBS News Staffers Won’t Be Disciplined for Not Responding to Bari Weiss Memo, Union Says (EXCLUSIVE)

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    Apparently, you can ignore the memo.

    CBS has indicated that staffers at CBS News will not be disciplined if they don’t respond to a much-scrutinized message sent last week by Bari Weiss, the division’s new editor in chief, according to Writers Guild of America East, the union representing many CBS News employees,

    CBS “informed us that you will not be disciplined if you do not respond to the email, indicating that a response is optional. The company further stated that if you choose to respond, it will not be a basis for discipline, discharge, or layoff,” according to a message from the union to its members that was reviewed by Variety. “We intend to hold the company to these responses.”

    CBS News declined to make executives available for comment.

    CBS News staffers have been grappling with conflicting orders since Weiss sent the message, according to three people familiar with the matter, after some producers at the Paramount Skydance news unit urged reporters and journalists to respond despite WGA criticism. Weiss asked staffers to tell her “how you spend your working hours” and what they thought of CBS News, so that she and editorial employees could be “aligned on achieving a shared vision for CBS News.”

    A simple memo from a senior executive usually doesn’t spur such conflagration, but Weiss is no ordinary news leader. She was named editor in chief at CBS News last week by Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, and CBS News staffers have been roiled in the aftermath. Weiss, a digital entrepreneur and opinion writer who built The Free Press, has no experience running a mainstream TV-news outlet, and little history in helping traditional journalists navigate the challenges to finding facts. She has a direct line to Ellison, while Tom Cibrowski, a former ABC executive who came aboard as CBS News president earlier this year, has been tasked with working alongside Weiss and lending his expertise.

    The Paramount news drama takes place as most employees are fearful they are about to lose their jobs. Paramount executives have said they intend to cut the company’s workforce significantly in order to trim costs. Details on staff layoffs are expected to be revealed by Paramount’s next earnings report.

    CBS told the union that employee responses to Weiss were not supposed to be used to foster pushback against respondents. “The intention is that only Bari Weiss and her Chief of Staff will see the responses, though they may have an obligation to share with other senior executives,” CBS said. The company also noted that Weiss’ purpose in seeking employee reaction was simply “to know the employees and use it as a discussion guide as she meets with employees in the coming weeks and months as time permits.”

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    Brian Steinberg

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  • Warner Bros. Discovery Rejected Paramount Skydance Acquisition Offer of $20 per Share as Too Low (Report)

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    Warner Bros. Discovery rejected a takeover offer of “around” $20 per share from David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance in recent weeks as “too low,” Bloomberg News reported Saturday, citing anonymous sources.

    WBD shares closed at $17.10/share Friday, up more than 36% since news broke Sept. 11 of Ellison’s interest in bidding for the rival just weeks after closing Skydance’s deal to acquire Paramount Global. Warner Bros. Discovery, parent of HBO/HBO Max, Warner Bros. Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS and more, has a market cap of $42.3 billion. The Bloomberg story did not indicate whether Paramount’s bid included the assumption of WBD’s total debt (which as of June 30 was $35.6 billion).

    Paramount Skydance has been in talks with Apollo Global Management, the asset management firm that had previously bid for Paramount Global, about joining its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, Bloomberg reported. Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle founder who is David’s father, fronted most of the money for Skydance’s $8 billion deal for Paramount Global.

    Reps for Paramount, WBD and Apollo did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.

    Ellison, speaking last week at L.A.’s Bloomberg Screentime conference, did not confirm that Paramount Skydance has bid for WBD. But he went on to explain why he thinks Paramount needs to bolt on more content-producing engines to achieve sustainable growth in today’s streaming-centric world and cited WBD chief David Zaslav’s comments that the industry needs more consolidation.

    “I do think there’s a lot of [M&A] options out there that in terms of what actually might be actionable in the near future,” Ellison said at the conference. “You actually need more content to yield more engagement. And so we would actually want to be in the business, through whatever lens we’re looking at” to produce “more movies, more television series” to get more scale and engagement. Ellison declined to name potential takeout targets.

    Paramount Skydance’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery would be for WBD in its entirety, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The M&A overture comes ahead of WBD’s plans to split into two separate companies next spring (Warner Bros., comprising studios and streaming, and Discovery Global, including TV networks and Discovery+).

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    Todd Spangler

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  • CBS News Agrees Not to Edit ‘Face The Nation’ Interviews Following Homeland Security Backlash

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    CBS News is giving up some of the power it has to hold “Face the Nation” interviewees to account.

    The Paramount Skydance news unit said Friday it would cease editing taped interviews with newsmakers who appear on “Face the Nation” following complaints from the Trump administration over an appearance on the show earlier this week when U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem made a number of false or unproven statements about Kilmar Abergo Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was deported despite his having protected legal status in the United States.

    The move is an unorthodox one, leaving CBS News unable to remove false statements or propaganda uttered by political operatives and officials and undermining the authority and credibility of Margaret Brennan, the moderator of the Sunday public-affairs program. The edict is also risky, potentially giving viewers the sense that Brennan is less able to question or challenge her guests — one of the main elements of TV’s Sunday political shows that bring viewers to it in the first place.

    The decision may spur viewers to leave “Face the Nation,” one of the most-viewed among the so-called “Sunday shows,” and sample rivals such as NBC News’ “Meet the Press” or ABC News’ “This Week.”

    “In response to audience feedback over the past week, we have implemented a new policy for greater transparency in our interviews. ‘Face The Nation’ will now only broadcast live or live-to-tape interviews (subject to national security or legal restrictions),” CBS News said in a Friday statement. “This extra measure means the television audience will see the full, unedited interview on CBS and we will continue our practice of posting full transcripts and the unedited video online.”

    But it also means “Nation” could become a home of grandstanding by interviewees from either side of the political aisle who would rather spout talking points than answer a question. And it speaks to the naiveté of the new owners of CBS News, a group led by CEO David Ellison, about the nature of TV journalism and its service to viewers.

    More to come….

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    Brian Steinberg

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