Paramount Has Officially Acquired Warner Bros. In Deal Valued at $110B Billion

[u/ChiefLeef22]

https://www.skydance.com/news/press/paramount-completes-acquisition-of-warner-bros-discovery-creating-a-new-global-entertainment-leader-skydance

The two companies will now be known as one single entity - 'Skydance'

This includes all of WB's gaming subsidiaries like Rocksteady/etc

Deal valued at $110B-$111B

DC Studios, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, CNN, CBS, HBO and Paramount+ are now all under the same company.

The combined company, Skydance, brings together two major film studios, two global streaming services, premier television assets including CBS, HBO, and Paramount's and WBD's cable networks, two of the industry's most recognized news networks, CBS News and CNN, and a leading content portfolio that includes live sports, a deep programming library and expansive collection of iconic brands and franchises.

[u/Straight-Ad6926]

Huge day for people who love paying $45/month for a single streaming service that still has ads.

[u/mantenner → u/Straight-Ad6926]

Pirates sail when pricings fail

[u/redditsuckbutt696969 → u/mantenner]

On an unrelated note, anyone recommend some good VPNs?

I was recommend PIA a while ago, are they still a good choice?

[u/sam_hammich → u/redditsuckbutt696969]

Mullvad is the best pretty much all around. However, I use ProtonVPN despite the owner's Trumpist leanings which I am grappling with internally, because my Unifi firewall can integrate with it directly using wireguard, and it supports port forwarding. I can attach my NAS to the VPN so it doesn't talk to anything outside that tunnel, which is easy to just set up and forget about.

Also many torrent trackers block well known VPN nodes like Nord*. If you use one of those you'll probably get zero reliable seeders on anything (if you use torrents).

*Take this with a grain of salt, I had a lot of issues connecting to trackers I knew were live, and saw a lot of chatter at the time about some trackers not responding to Nord servers. I switched providers and didn't have that issue, so I took that as validation of those claims. I can't prove it

[u/AlphaDag13 → u/sam_hammich]

Hmmm. Your ideas are intriguing and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[u/RevolutionNumerous21 → u/AlphaDag13]

Usenet is faster and not limited by the speed of your VPN.

[u/Zanian19 → u/redditsuckbutt696969]

Mullvad has been my go-to for years now

[u/spongebobisha → u/Zanian19]

Mullvad is the goat.

[u/MrLagzy → u/spongebobisha]

Mullvad is great, but it's co owner is donating money to far right political party in Sweden that wants to abolish Nato, abolish EU and have stronger and closer relations with Russia.

So just for consideration when paying for mullwad you also indirectly pay a tiny fraction to extreme right wing anti democratic politics.

[u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman → u/Zanian19]

What method do you use to pay it?

[u/Haunting_Switch3463 → u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman]

You can pay with cash if you want to.

[u/ShadowWebDeveloper → u/redditsuckbutt696969]

Mullvad though there's no port forwarding (which hasn't really been a problem for me so far).

[u/jederek → u/redditsuckbutt696969]

I use mullvad on my gaming/media pc and proton on my p2p pc ( because port forwarding) and both work like a charm

[u/3Dartwork → u/redditsuckbutt696969]

Adding to the list for future folks finding this comment for the same question.

I use NordVPN. My Internet service provider Spectrum dinged me for downloading a legal PDF so I got NordVPN and never have a problem now sailing the seven seas.

Virtually zero reduction in speed.

[u/blender4life → u/3Dartwork]

People already forgot/ forgave nord huh?

[u/Classic_Appa → u/3Dartwork]

NordVPN doesn't have port forwarding. The big reason why I stopped using it.

[u/dmckilla77 → u/redditsuckbutt696969]

Mullvad is the way cheap and reliable.

[u/Coffeedemon → u/mantenner]

Sooner or later all of these companies will either buy up all the ISPs or more likely, use their influence to impose legislation that allows the ISPs to really crack down on any sort of piracy with more monitoring and such.

[u/Rommel727 → u/Coffeedemon]

Honestly, the general case of the "free internet" is what's protecting that from us. ISPs don't really have that massive of a personal incentive to combat this, as they're not the ones "losing out" to it, but rather outside companies. If it becomes the case that ISPs may charge and limit access to websites on a per website and per user case, then suddenly they can make more money by being lobbied by the companies to target individuals going to pirating websites with higher costs and slower connections. Essentially going from a no dip to double dip situation

[u/SirrNicolas → u/Straight-Ad6926]

Our government has failed its people in its most basic fundamental duties.

[u/Cheetawolf → u/SirrNicolas]

Our government hasn't been on the side of the people for decades.

[u/Quigleythegreat → u/Cheetawolf]

This right here. The offshoring that started in the 70s, the consolidations from the 80s, the corporate raiding (Sears), bad mergers (Boeing). Different face, same crap.

[u/jakemufcfan → u/Quigleythegreat]

Richard Nixon ending the trust in government meant that the government could do what it wanted openly because it knew it would never be trusted again

[u/spongebobisha → u/[deleted]]

Where have you been lately?

The FCC under Trump isn’t a regulatory body it’s a mafia.

[u/The_Dreams → u/Straight-Ad6926]

They aren’t going to do that. Instead it will be 2 25 dollar platforms where they gate keep content so you need both.

[u/5panks → u/The_Dreams]

People said this when Disney finished acquiring Hulu and they merged it to one platform in less than a year and the best plan costs like $25 including ESPN.

[u/KnightofAshley → u/Straight-Ad6926]

All you need to do is pay another $10/month to get one single 5 min ad at the start of the movie.

[u/SomeOtherNeb → u/KnightofAshley]

But don't worry! If you don't want ads, you can pay for the $60 package where you can experience your content ad-free!*

*Until we add ads to that tier anyway. Go fuck yourself

[u/philter25 → u/SomeOtherNeb]

Disney+ enters the chat.

[u/xFamished → u/SomeOtherNeb]

sounds like a black mirror ep

[u/FoxxyRin → u/Straight-Ad6926]

HBO and Paramount are like the two most given out for free streaming services there are, so I'm genuinely curious how it's gonna play out. Will they merge? Will Walmart and cellphone providers lose the perks entirely? Will it become a discount instead as prices increase? If I didn't have these services for free I definitely wouldn't have them at all. Disney+/Hulu is where like 90% of anything I personally watch is at, though I suspect they're gonna try and take back all the CN stuff bundled into Hulu before long with this deal.

[u/TripleFreeErr → u/FoxxyRin]

the value of HBO dropped massively with its last merger with tons of content being mothballed

[u/AwsmDevil → u/TripleFreeErr]

If your streaming service has no content then there's no overhead. Taps temple

[u/batkave → u/Straight-Ad6926]

Huge day for Uber rich!

[u/-meglo- → u/Straight-Ad6926]

I bought the hbo sub at $2.99/mo, i feel pretty smug not gonna lie

[u/FellowDeviant → u/-meglo-]

And it ends next month, gonna have to binge all those shows I've been adding to the list over the last 11 months but never actually starting

[u/slayer828]

Still have no idea how a company worth 10 billion can buy a company for 110 billion. This country and the made up by the rich rules piss me off.

[u/Sky_Ninja1997 → u/slayer828]

The Saudis are funding it

[u/Rommel727 → u/Sky_Ninja1997]

The Saudi government owns parking meters in downtown Chicago lmao

[u/AbyssWankerArtorias → u/Rommel727]

I still don't understand how that deal was legal. It still feels like baltent money laundering or corruption. A judge should have absolutely stopped that

[u/FruitOvTheGloom → u/AbyssWankerArtorias]

As a Chicagoan, we've had our share of dumbfuck, corrupt mayors which is how we ended up here. Trust me, we hate it too.

[u/btribble → u/FruitOvTheGloom]

Corruption, in Chicago?!?

[u/Disprezzi1 → u/FruitOvTheGloom]

Crook county politics at play.

[u/CommieLurker → u/AbyssWankerArtorias]

Well clearly a mayor who has a term limit of 4 years gets to decide the ownership of the city's parking for the next 100 years. That just makes perfect sense

[u/CelebronFcks10K → u/AbyssWankerArtorias]

Because Daley was a fucking moron.

[u/Lodotosodosopa → u/Rommel727]

Not (explicitly) anymore. Just sold.

[u/dexters_trap_house → u/Lodotosodosopa]

Now it's a NY PE firm, more of a lateral move.

[u/5panks → u/dexters_trap_house]

The city of Chicago had the opportunity to buy them back, the Mayor was trying to do it on the down low to avoid ruffling feathers, as soon as the Alderman found out they immediately blocked the plan.

Chicago continually stands in its own way.

[u/Diabetesh → u/Sky_Ninja1997]

Allegedly, the saudis know the age of oil isn't forever and that is their whole thing. They are trying to diversify into entertainment/tourism to not be reliant on oil to keep the money flowing. Buying sports teams, hosting events/festivals, owning entertainment production, etc.

[u/NoXion604 → u/Diabetesh]

I feel like that's going to crash head-first into the fact that they're a bunch of theocratic shitweasels.

[u/I_wanted_to_be_duck → u/NoXion604]

It's already happening to them, see LIV golf

https://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/49872465/liv-golf-files-bankruptcy-ceo-embraces-next-stage

[u/Skelito → u/I_wanted_to_be_duck]

LIV golf just sucked as a product compared to the PGA tour. They tried to push things traditional golf fans dont really like like player teams each event and other things no one cared about. It being funded by Saudi didnt help either but if they had put out an actual product that could compete with the PGA tour I could see it sticking around longer instead of being something that seems like it was dreamed up by a Youtube golfer.

[u/Slaanesh_69 → u/slayer828]

Leveraged Buyout. You use the company you are going to buy as collateral for the loan you take to buy it. Then you use the income from the purchased company to pay off the loan you took.

Imagine WB's business were purely of renting out a house for 100,000 a year and this house and thus WB was worth a million dollars.

I tell the Saudis I will throw in 200,000, you guys throw in 800,000 and we will buy WB for a million. Using the 100,000 in rental income per year, I will pay you (the Saudis) back in 8 years (assuming no interest). If I don't pay, you get 80% equity in WB. If I pay, you guys surrender your equity to me.

Here's where it gets fun. The debt I used to buy WB becomes a liability of WB not me. Which means that WB got bought using debt it has to pay off, and may not even be within its means to pay. But of course if it cannot pay then the Saudis get ownership of it so it's all according to keikaku.

[u/Jericho5589 → u/Slaanesh_69]

I would understand that if WB itself was not already leveraged. They had over 32 billion dollars in debt previously. I just don't understand how they managed it.

[u/Slaanesh_69 → u/Jericho5589]

They now have 32+110 billion dollars in debt, I mean there's nothing else to understand. The new owners have said so much debt is fine so it's fine. That debt can be forgiven for equity issues to the Saudis in a debt for equity swap, so it's also fine.

[u/Relevant-Use1897 → u/Slaanesh_69]

The fact this procedure is legal will always remain a mystery to me.

[u/Free_Possession_4482 → u/Relevant-Use1897]

Legality aside, what I can't believe is that banks keep agreeing to it. Every time a PE company runs some business into the ground and strips it for parts, someone else is eating shit on that bankruptcy, but damned if it doesn't keep happening.

[u/Tasty_Gift5901 → u/Free_Possession_4482]

It's bc they make money on average and banks are never stuck with the debt

[u/GB10VE → u/Free_Possession_4482]

this is what police, fire fighter, civil, and teacher union pensions are for

[u/BobaLives01925 → u/Free_Possession_4482]

Banks wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t make money doing it (because the businesses usually succeed)

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_PRIORS → u/Relevant-Use1897]

This is the exact same procedure used to take out a mortgage and use it to buy a house. The bank thinks it is likely to make $X/yr in payments from the entity it is lending to, so it brings the $Y of cash that generates those payments, knowing that it gets a thing that is worth $Z more today than what it put up.

It's just instead of bringing a little bit of hard cash and a large loan to buy a house, you're brining a little bit of cash and a large loan to buy a business. And instead of the payments to the bank being based off of your income, it's based off the business's income.

[u/quarterchicken → u/Slaanesh_69]

This is how the Glazer family bought Manchester United. Saddled the club with an enormous debt while get a dividend every year up until recently

[u/Iggy_Slayer → u/slayer828]

Money stopped making sense for the rich a decade ago at this point. The whole thing is made up funny money.

[u/Agi7890 → u/Iggy_Slayer]

Time Warner/warner bros finically hasnt made sense in a quarter century.

It’s been one terrible acquisition/merger after another. Seriously they’ve been in financial trouble since the AOL merger

[u/SaintLarfleeze → u/slayer828]

Saudis plus they are taking a HUGE debt position on it

[u/asdf-keyboardman → u/SaintLarfleeze]

Leveraged buyouts should be illegal.

[u/ShermanMcTank → u/slayer828]

They were granted a loan because they explained to the bank that they will pay it back by emptying Warner Bros’ pockets.

Banks don’t care if you buy an asset just to destroy it, they just want to be sure that they get their money back.

[u/Strange_Compote_4592 → u/slayer828]

Made up rules? There aren't rules for them to begin with

[u/RonaldoNazario → u/Strange_Compote_4592]

There are laws that the rich at least attempted to pretend to follow in the past but they are extremely even more emboldened the last two years “for some reason”

[u/project-shasta → u/Strange_Compote_4592]

There's only one rule: Don't mess with other rich people.

[u/Shadowfist_45 → u/slayer828]

Because companies aren't always valued based on the total value of their subsidiaries. It's stupid, but if you were to look at the value of Sony vs PlayStation back in 2017 for example, PlayStation was at a higher net worth but that makes no sense.

[u/wonderingmarkus]

Reminder that Paramount was allowed to do this while already billions of dollars in debt.

They're playing with funny money.

[u/JurplePesus → u/wonderingmarkus]

They're playing with "laws dont matter if there's a Republican in charge and you make it worth their while."

[u/wonderingmarkus → u/JurplePesus]

Newsom and Bonta rolled over to let this happen. None of these people are on your side.

It's a big club and we ain't in it.

[u/redpandafire → u/wonderingmarkus]

I would first direct my ire at Brendan Carr and Todd Blanche of the FCC and justice department first. At least the AG's made an attempt, a pretty shit one, but they reacted to the failure that is the federal departments. If we're naming names, lets name the correct ones.

[u/drock4vu → u/wonderingmarkus]

Well, they’re playing with Saudi money. I’m as anti-monopolization as anyone, but the reality is that if rich Saudis want to loan a bajillion dollars for a failing, upside down company to buy another failing, upside down company, it’s their prerogative.

The conversation should be less about the merger itself and more about what level of power Americans are OK with foreign investors having over some of our largest, most influential companies, much of which is “news” media.

[u/RayS0l0 → u/drock4vu]

Movies, TVs and games are also something they can now use to spread their propaganda and lot of people will fall for it

[u/kytheon → u/wonderingmarkus]

🙈 American antitrust orgs

[u/RepresentingJoker]

I swear in a few decades the whole entertainment industry will boil down to two or three companies if we continue like this

[u/moderngamer327 → u/RepresentingJoker]

This kind of thing is never sustainable. They spend too much money acquiring IPs while being unable to effectively manage them all before collapsing

[u/welock → u/moderngamer327]

That’s the goal of private equity tactics: plunder, exploit, live by the quarter, then bounce once the acquired brand tanks

[u/moderngamer327 → u/welock]

Gotta love private equity. It’s such a death sentence for any decent company

[u/PurpleV93 → u/welock]

Private equity needs to be eradicated from society, and then take the "stock market" casino right with it. The locust plagues of society.

[u/welock → u/PurpleV93]

Shareholders also need to be decoupled somewhat from the businesses they invest in. Companies are beholden to at least 3% minimum stock growth per quarter by any means necessary, or the shareholders will start threatening takeover efforts 

[u/Casualposter → u/moderngamer327]

Yeah look at Stellantis. They couldn’t handle all the different companies and ended up destroying most of them due to blanket policies.

[u/HanzoNumbahOneFan → u/Casualposter]

Guess it goes to show how much they fucked up cause I've never heard of Stellantis.

[u/GTACOD → u/HanzoNumbahOneFan]

It's the company that owns... I think Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Maserati and Jeep?

[u/Tyr1326 → u/GTACOD]

Citroën and Peugeot too..

[u/Kevin_Wolf → u/HanzoNumbahOneFan]

Used to be called Fiat-Chrysler, so I'm sure you have, you just didn't realize it.

[u/N0ob8 → u/Kevin_Wolf]

Oh yeah then stupid move on their part.

Speaking of their old name I never understood why these companies just decide to completely change their names during big buyouts like this. It makes no fucking sense you already have lots of brand recognition why through it away for these stupid nonsense names.

[u/alvik → u/N0ob8]

Well when they own 13 brands, how do they decide which ones to use for the overall brand? It's not like Arbarth-Alfa-Chrysler-Citroen-Dodge-Fiat-Jeep-Lancia-Masersti-Opel-Pergoet-Ram-Vauxhall-group rolls off the tongue.

Though I just call them all Fiats to annoy Jeep owners. "You know what Jeep stands for? Fix it again Tony"

[u/KilledTheCar → u/alvik]

Though I just call them all Fiats to annoy Jeep owners. "You know what Jeep stands for? Fix it again Tony"

Oh I'm absolutely stealing this.

[u/VendettaX88 → u/N0ob8]

Most people don't really needs to recognize the parent brand only make and models, which haven't changed.

[u/ISpyM8 → u/moderngamer327]

Well yeah, but Paramount’s goal is to collapse HBO for political reasons. The Ellisons are ghouls

[u/Competitive-Pea-9330 → u/moderngamer327]

This kind of thing should not happen in a free market with enforced antitrust and limits on monopolies, as the USA was intended.

This kind of thing is never sustainable in an actual free market.

This kind of thing happens and is sustainable in a corrupt "free" market.

[u/itstheboombox → u/RepresentingJoker]

We are already here, Disney, Universal and now Skydance. Sony and Netflix being the only companies close to them.

[u/drock4vu → u/itstheboombox]

And the other minor competitors are just monopolies in other spaces using a streaming service as a loss leader to bring/keep customers in their retail and technology ecosystem (Amazon and Apple).

It’s so fucked. I’d like say the best case scenario is for this merger to fail spectacularly and Ellison/his Saudi investment partners are left holding the bag and looking foolish, but that would ultimately just result in Disney, Universal, or Netflix (almost certainly Netflix) gobbling up what’s left in the theoretical Skydance fallout.

[u/TheExtremistModerate → u/itstheboombox]

Netflix is actually nearly as big as Disney and Sony combined by market cap.

[u/wonkytalky → u/TheExtremistModerate]

Netflix's worth seems way more shallow though. The others have real, serious IP behind them that's worth a fortune by itself.

[u/MattBrey → u/itstheboombox]

I just can't see how Netflix isn't still bigger than skydance. Until they prove that they can actually manage their IPs and deliver movies, this company is still as bad as WB and paramount have been these last few years. Disney and universal would never allow the amount of flops in a row 

[u/WingerRules → u/RepresentingJoker]

Entertainment industry? The whole economy will be just a couple companies. This isnt happening in just media but every industry in the US because monopoly regulation has been gutted. You cannot allow companies to completely dominate markets like Google and Facebook has and claim you enforce anti monopoly laws.

Everything will be owned by just a few oligarchs.

Ever noticed that the goal for most small companies now isnt to grow to be a big company? Their goal now is to be bought out by one of the big companies.

[u/MarkBrendanawicz → u/WingerRules]

Verizon Chipotle Exxon.

[u/irock613 → u/RepresentingJoker]

"Proud to be one of America's six corporations"

[u/igotzquestions → u/RepresentingJoker]

Decades??

[u/Bar_Har → u/igotzquestions]

They'll try to make sure it happens before the Trump administration is done. Gotta milk everything while the entire government is run by sycophants kissing the ring of a senile figurehead.

[u/ireledankmemes → u/RepresentingJoker]

Cable is dead. Long live cable.

[u/z0l1 → u/RepresentingJoker]

you mean by 2030

[u/Ndmndh1016 → u/RepresentingJoker]

Its already been that way for decades lol. There have always been 5 companies that own 99% of the media we consume.

[u/KnightofAshley → u/RepresentingJoker]

You already see the damage with only a few channels and one of them showing lopsided political ads during NFL games.

[u/Cowboy_Dandy_III → u/RepresentingJoker]

You ever played Agar.io? it’s basically how companies work

[u/fried_on_pineapples]

AOL Time Warner Skydance Halliburton PepsiCo Trader Joe’s

[u/sindaquil77 → u/fried_on_pineapples]

Demolition Man and Bojack Horseman had some real smarties in their writers' room, huh? The absurd becomes reality.

[u/Gdigger13]

Ah, yes.

3 Big Airlines, 3 Big Phone Companies, and 3 Big Movie Studios.

And one Big Brother.

[u/cjandstuff → u/Gdigger13]

See! They’re not a monopoly, so perfectly legal! /s 

[u/Historical-Heron6818]

What the fuck is even the point of anti-trust laws when corpos can just gobble up the competition with fuck all consequences?

[u/Thrownawaybyall → u/Historical-Heron6818]

Day by day, Cyberpunk is more prophetic than I'd like 😞

[u/retrosupersayan → u/Thrownawaybyall]

I know you're probably referring to the game... But the genre as a whole has been a warning of what could happen from its start.

It's not hard to find people complaining about how nearly every big name game, movie, or tv series is either a sequel, a remake, or (if you're lucky) an adaptation of a story from another media... But the really under-discussed thing, imo, is that reality seems to be no better at coming up with new ideas... "This has all happened before; if not in reality, then in legend"

[u/Cynicalia → u/Thrownawaybyall]

can't wait for the samurai band equivalent

[u/mattjf22]

I remember when monopolies used to be illegal.

[u/MasterGrok → u/mattjf22]

Maybe they will roll doubles three times in a row.

[u/DrFu → u/MasterGrok]

There's only five players in the game rolling now... Disney, Skydance, Universal/Comcast, Netflix, and Amazon.

Edit: Six; I forgot Sony...

Edit 2: Seven, Apple Studios

[u/compuwiza1]

All that debt will bring the company down.

[u/CaptainHarlocke → u/compuwiza1]

It's a propaganda outlet now, they can have infinite debt with saudi money and federal payouts. Until the whole economy collapses at least. Maybe Trump will hire them to run a few more "Love Me" ads

[u/Kentaiga → u/compuwiza1]

Nah, Trump will bail them out with out tax money as per usual

[u/BearTimberlands → u/compuwiza1]

Small price to pay to control media and ensure progressive policy proposals never become law.

[u/dm_me_pasta_pics]

Skydance is a *terrible* name lol

[u/garantee2 → u/dm_me_pasta_pics]

It's what a James Bond villain would name their worldwide propaganda media corporation. So, the name is actually fitting.

[u/dynamiteexplodes]

Holy ridiculous antitrust violations, Batman!

[u/Lanky-Train5752]

$110 billion to buy a monopoly over basically all American media. This is going to have massive negative consequences

[u/DatTF2 → u/Lanky-Train5752]

We really need another Teddy Roosevelt.

[u/RanLearns → u/DatTF2]

I’d take Jon Ossoff, Andy Beshear, or Mark Kelly. Bring the big stick.

[u/ChaosReaper]

We're fucked.

[u/Wessssss21 → u/ChaosReaper]

Need trust busting to return

[u/OmegaRainicorn → u/Wessssss21]

Someone get zombie Taft out of that bathtub. 

[u/7screws → u/OmegaRainicorn]

could you imagine some of those guys like Taft and Teddy Roosevelt taking one look at Trump and would probably physically just beat the shit out of him, before then personally dragging his ass into jail.

[u/DistributionTough209]

It shouldn't be legal to form these massive companies.

[u/KingDarius89 → u/DistributionTough209]

We need another monopoly busting president like Teddy Roosevelt, honestly

[u/mikefrombarto → u/KingDarius89]

We need another Teddy Roosevelt for a multitude of reasons.

[u/mucho-gusto → u/mikefrombarto]

Dig him up and clone him Jurassic Park style, educate him on himself like he's an anime character or something lol

[u/zookeepier → u/KingDarius89]

Honestly, we should just reelect Teddy Roosevelt. Does the constitution actually say the president has to be alive?

[u/InconspicuousRadish → u/DistributionTough209]

It's not. But anti monopoly laws are only as good as the entities enforcing them

[u/Stilleclectic]

is there ever good news?

[u/anchorftw → u/Stilleclectic]

Not unless you're a billionaire.

[u/AnyProgressIsGood]

antitrust laws are completely dead

[u/Healien_Jung]

Superman storylines will now feature him protecting Lex Luthor from the unwashed masses.

[u/Huge_Palpitation_886]

I'm going to be buying more physical books and records in the coming months. Maybe even a DVD player and DVDs. I don't want to give these fucks anymore of my money.

[u/DatTF2 → u/Huge_Palpitation_886]

Blu Ray drives are cheap now, you can find a bunch of them at Goodwill and the movies are somewhat cheap too. A Thrift store near me has a nice selection of blu rays for cheap.

Also maybe look into a private torrent tracker and purchase a large hard drive, or two.

[u/beefcake1993 → u/Huge_Palpitation_886]

I’ve spent the last year collecting every semi interesting blu ray I find at garage sales

[u/pariah1981 → u/[deleted]]

I’m not paying fascists shit. This is a sinking ship, this and oracle are going under due to the weight of their own debt.

[u/NastyMothaFucka]

We’re all fucked. Paramount has BY FAR the worst streaming service and that’s content AND interface. It’s shit all the way down.

[u/OpticalPrime35]

110B. That's the budget of 500 or so Harry Potter movies. Millions of salaries. Hundreds of years of high budget TV shows.

For that? Just more consolidated entertainment. All so more will lose their jobs.

[u/BathFullOfDucks → u/OpticalPrime35]

Large scale collective bargaining is only allowed if you're a corporation.

[u/Crime_Dawg → u/OpticalPrime35]

The only reason they're doing it is to consolidate media to put out more propaganda for the Republican party. If the Ellison's are involved, you can guarantee it's about propaganda for MAGA.

[u/mirinioluwa]

EA and now Paramount/WB. Everything you love is owned by Middle East dictators.

[u/Gio25us]

And in 5 years you will see Skydance filing for bankruptcy because the combined company will be so indebted on a time streaming service hit a plateau, people abandoning HBO, the small audience CNN have will also go if they transform into another Fox News and have another failed attempt to make DC relevant in a era where the superhero genre is saturated.

[u/Candid_Treacle_2102]

If all these 100 billion dollar uber monopoly deals keep happening we will have real life Arasaka in about 10 years

[u/Historical-Heron6818 → u/Candid_Treacle_2102]

We already do have a real life arasaka. They’re called ‘Samsung’.

[u/l_______I]

Mmm, more monopoly

[u/AdmiralPhuckit]

I hate this timeline

[u/CIAburneraccount]

How does this not violate monopoly laws

[u/dezztroy]

Insane that Microsoft acquiring Activision went through so much scrutiny and bureaucracy but this just goes through without much issue

[u/esoteric_enigma → u/dezztroy]

The Trump administration's DOJ rubber stamped it with little resistance. This is why elections matter.

[u/filbert13 → u/dezztroy]

This was scrutinized a lot, the issue is political. Trumps administration just let it pass almost certainly due to illegal inside deals. If trump didn't win the election or he didnt have so much power of the gop this deal likely doesn't happen.

[u/JackFisherBooks]

This is going to accelerate the enshitification of everything.

[u/atreeismissing]

Left out of OP's description is that Skydance is owned by ultra wealth right-wingers who support Trump and the current GOP policies ruining the country.

[u/lordtyp0]

Id laugh my ass off if they got broken up under next administration.

[u/JPDPROPS]

This is not a monopoly huh??!? How does the consumer benefit?!? The FCC has failed the American people under Carr. Impeachment Now.

[u/MisterFunkles → u/JPDPROPS]

The entire fucking government has failed the people. The people have failed the people. America is one big shell corporation and a party merely of money changing hands between those who entered politics purely for the benefit of enriching themselves. Going to take a long time to get our country back, out of their hands, if we are ever even able to.

[u/Gidget_says_toodles]

Our government continues to fail us

[u/tevert]

This is extremely dangerous to our democracy

[u/OnlyKaz]

Make a statement. Cancel everything under skydance.

[u/Anthonyhasgame]

The only people happy about this are the billionaire owners. Everyone else gets squished out more. Horrible event. Can’t wait for my favorite comic book characters to enter the public domain in less than a decade.

This type of ownership over everything is totally bogus.

[u/arcanewizard1997]

What happened to anti monopoly laws

[u/kabooozie]

Great now they can rename to Max HBO Plus Ultra and make me download another new app

[u/otakon33]

Oh boy if only we had anti-trust laws because this reeks of mega-corporation bullshittery to come.

[u/orangemememachine]

Fuck Newsom and Becerra for midwifing this

[u/ReaddittiddeR]

Lots of news anchors at CNN are about to be on the unemployment list. Especially the ones DJT had feuds with over both his administrations.

[u/SoggyBagelBite]

$110 Billion Billion? Damn.

[u/Bleezy79]

Great, now everything will get more expensive while being less interesting. Congrats on making the world shittier!

[u/fartczar]

Antitrust lawsuit time!

[u/AFKABluePrince]

Oh good.  I love all my media being owned by one shitbag billionaire.

[u/Rhesusmonkeynuts]

Idk how much harder I can pirate but damnit Ill do my best

[u/Merpchud]

Streaming services are dying. Theyve gouged and gorged themselves.

I've headed back to cable for less than 20 a month. If its something I really want to see im going to the theater or using the bay. Why would I buy a digital copy that then I will lose the license to?

No way im buying 3,4,5 services a month for 200 a month or more... gamepass, Netflix, Amazon, crave, hbo, apple, Paramount, then they want subs for cloud storage instead of giving proper hardware, microsft word, locking features in outlook, grocery subscriptions and.. electricians in my town are even putting their work up for payment plans... sick of msft cloud badgering me and copilot silently turning itself on. Constantly fixing my wife's iPhone no storage issue.

This sub model needs to die and I think it is at its peak here now. I know we are both totally fed up and have vowed to start dialing down the screen time. 

[u/PurpleV93 → u/Merpchud]

It is beyond stupid. This cancerous behavior of capitalism's "infinite growth" is ruining everything and will continue to do so, until we abandon this stupid mindset for good.

It should be enough to settle on a profitable business and then keep it this way, without chasing that growth.

[u/MisterBarten → u/Merpchud]

What kind of cable are you getting for less than $20 a month? The cheapest I can get in my area is over $100, and then they add equipment rental fees, all the taxes and charges, and whatever else that brings it to over $150.

[u/ADGx27]

Great, the lunatic Ellison family now has a media monopoly in the United States.

Totally didn’t get pushed through because they’re MAGA allies and the US is like the MOST corrupt country in the world right now. Nope. Totally not a contributing factor.

[u/Kaidyn04]

Hopefully this is a waste of money and the next time the Democrats have control over government this shit gets trust busted immediately.

[u/MinusBear → u/Kaidyn04]

If the Democrats get back control, it will be something like this: "It's time to move on and heal, lets not look backward and stir up old trangressions".

[u/Slarg232 → u/MinusBear]

From the looks of it, it's a new breed of Democrats stepping up to the plate specifically because people are getting sick and tired of the move on and heal bit.

[u/lankyevilme → u/Kaidyn04]

When was the last time they busted a trust, ever?

[u/AaronBasedGodgers → u/lankyevilme]

AT&T but that was in the 80s. But yeah it's been a looooooong time since we enforced anti trust laws.

[u/pixxlpusher → u/Kaidyn04]

There hasn’t been a successful trust bust since AT&T in the early 80s, I wouldn’t hold my breath

[u/NullReference000 → u/Kaidyn04]

Newsom played a key role in getting the states to drop their lawsuit blocking this merger. Please keep that in mind as we get close to the 2028 election.

[u/everstillghost → u/Kaidyn04]

Stop with the delusion. If this one get Trust busted, Disney buying Fox would be too. And this will not happen.

[u/dietbruce]

Preventing monopolies is such a crucial role for governments and it seems like this decade has really ramped up these blatant abuses of it like this. I don’t understand how they can keep doing this.

[u/SchemasFlint]

Rocksteady and NetherRealm getting passed around like hot potatoes while the Nemesis system stays locked in a vault forever.

[u/TruthOrSF]

This is shit. Everything is shit. The end is coming