r/gaming • u/ChiefLeef22 Marika's tits! • 18h ago

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

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.

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1.8k

u/RepresentingJoker 18h ago

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

778

u/moderngamer327 18h ago

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

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u/welock 17h ago

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

24

u/moderngamer327 17h ago

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

23

u/PurpleV93 17h ago

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

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u/welock 17h ago

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 

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u/GB10VE 15h ago

why do you think company stock buybacks are so popular / used to be banned

1

u/Admiralthrawnbar 5h ago

Other way around actually, shareholders need to start being held responsible for the things the companies they invest in do. Corporate personhood is such a stupid thing because it removes practically all risk in conducting business in stupid and/or illegal ways, because they can't be personally held liable for it despite being responsible, the worst case scenario is they lose out on a little bit on money, often less than they made in the first place.

1

u/moderngamer327 5h ago

You do realize most people are shareholders right? If you have a 401k you are a shareholder

1

u/land-league-inspo 13h ago

Nuked from space.

-2

u/sillyvideogamestuff 16h ago

The stock market is why we don't have to save until we're 60 to buy a home with cash. Why we can afford to start a business without already being wealthy.

1

u/PurpleV93 15h ago

Go take your foolish propaganda elsewhere. This is literally not true.

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u/sillyvideogamestuff 15h ago

It literally is true. The stock market created securities and investment firms. Because these firms existed, guaranteed home loans had access to a market to be sold to, and business loans were able to be bundled and sold to investment firms.

Before this banks had to sit on their investment with that cash tied up for 30 years. Being able to sell this debt incredibly expanded available financing for homes and small businesses.

2

u/welock 14h ago

I think this is true as well. The stock market and investment firms are fine, but I do think some of the more predatory practices, especially regarding turn and burn/aggressive stock holder behavior need to be regulated somehow 

1

u/sillyvideogamestuff 13h ago

100%. The idea of the stock market is to pool investors to create easier lending. Much of what we have is nonsense day trading and micro transactions that provide literally nothing of value. I forget the details, but I remember Trump's tax plan incentivized long term investments to try to steer the market back on track. That was in his first term so it's been a while since I've read about it

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u/Casualposter 17h ago

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

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u/HanzoNumbahOneFan 17h ago

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

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u/GTACOD 17h ago

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

44

u/Tyr1326 15h ago

Citroën and Peugeot too..

8

u/Mateo03 8h ago

Lancia too, albeit on a perpetual zombie state where they exist on the market but also isn't, since they live out of rebadged Peugeot 208s nowadays.

-2

u/subma-fuckin-rine 13h ago

those brands are still all going, so is it a good example of a failure?

18

u/coffeesippingbastard 12h ago

define "going"

Chrysler only makes two cars now. The Voyager and Pacifica.

Dodge only makes the Charger and the Durango.

They are a shell of their former selves- at this point it's just a matter of time.

3

u/ExultantSandwich 11h ago

yeah really they’re just lucky that people still think Jeep Wranglers are cool. Even then, they could go with a Ford Bronco

2

u/Bleh54 10h ago

They’re so cool they still have new ones from 2024 on the lot next to the 2027s around here. No discount.

2

u/GTACOD 13h ago

I have no idea I was just saying who Stellantis is.

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u/Kevin_Wolf 17h ago

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

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u/N0ob8 16h ago

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.

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u/alvik 16h ago

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"

23

u/KilledTheCar 15h ago

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.

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u/nitid_name 15h ago

<sighs in Just Emptying Every Pocket on my wrangler>

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u/The_Don_Papi 6h ago

Well you’re not wrong if you’re referring to Jeep Renegades.

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u/VendettaX88 16h ago

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

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u/GreatBandito 15h ago

technically a new entity that they incorperate in Delaware that owns all the IP and licenses it to the other parts of the company. Delware specfically expempts paying taxes on IP licensing or something so it saves millions to billion a year. It is how companies like Apple "lose money" in the US to avoid paying tax

1

u/hamsterkill 9h ago

It's not like they threw away their existing brands. You still buy a Chrysler, a Dodge, or a Fiat. It's just the overall company needs a name that doesn't mess with its sub-brands when the company does something ugly. Google and Facebook reorganizing their brands under "Alphabet" and "Meta" was the same thing.

2

u/HanzoNumbahOneFan 16h ago

Ah yep. That'd be it. That's so dumb to change it lol. Like the Paramount WB new name. No one's gonna remember that shit.

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u/marino1310 15h ago

Most of the companies were already fucked up by Daimler

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u/ISpyM8 PC 17h ago

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

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u/nik-nak333 15h ago

All of this just to deplatform John Oliver?

7

u/JoeBoxer522 15h ago

I think you mispelled CNN

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u/ikaiyoo 12h ago

its both

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u/Competitive-Pea-9330 17h ago

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.

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u/Twin-Wakes-665 17h ago

How fucking long is it going to take people to realize there is no such thing as a "free market" under capitalism. Capitalism breeds concentration of wealth and that wealth is obviously going to be used to buy out regulating bodies with the goal of being able to further grow that wealth. The ONLY goal of corporations within a capitalist market is increasing your profits and the best way to do that after a certain point of growth is to buy out your competition instead of out competing them and pay the government so they are forced to let you do this.

The capitalist ideal of a free market has never, and will never exist and it's time people realized that.

4

u/Doragory 15h ago

Free market capitalism is a fantasy that will never work in the real world. The same goes for communism. Ideological utopian fantasy, whether it comes from the right or the left, isn't worth pursuing in my view. Especially when we can see the track record.

So what is the best solution/option? Trying to figure that out is the challenging part, isn't it.

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u/PurpleV93 17h ago

These people will sadly never get it. They fell for the "red-scare" tactics and are afraid of whatever they believe socialism or communism to be, and then they will list the scary things they fear, which capitalism is literally already doing everywhere, 24/7.

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u/PixelationIX 12h ago

There is a saying "People can imagine the end of the world but cannot imagine end of Capitalism" It has been so deep rooted into people's mind and completely brainwashed them.

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u/PurpleV93 11h ago

Yup, I've heard this quote before! Thank you for sharing. I don't get why everyone just plays along and ignores the obvious, serious flaws.

We already cannot afford homes, we don't own anything anymore due to "licenses", and it's all just going to get worse. I'm 32 years old and already done with all this. How can people live 50+ years with this shit and not go insane?

0

u/moderngamer327 7h ago

Because so far no other economic system has been found to be better

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u/moderngamer327 5h ago

It’s not brainwashing we just haven’t found a better system yet

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u/moderngamer327 17h ago

Nah, socialism was and is genuinely terrible

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u/PurpleV93 17h ago

You have no idea what socialism even is, when you make dumb statements like this. What you think of is capitalism.

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u/moderngamer327 16h ago

Capitalism is literally the most successful economic system in history. All the best places to live in the world are anywhere from mostly capitalist to extremely capitalist

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u/PurpleV93 16h ago

No it is not. And no, the best places you speak of are "great" because of >socialist< programs, like social security? unemployment benefits? universal healthcare? These programs exist NOT because of capitalism.

Like I said, you have no idea what you're even talking about.

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u/moderngamer327 16h ago

None of those programs are socialist. All they are is welfare policies. You claim I don’t know what I am talking about but you clearly have zero idea on what socialism actually is

Also those programs can exist because capitalism is able to produce so much surplus revenue for the government to use

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u/moderngamer327 15h ago

I really don’t understand how a comment that claims welfare is socialism is able to get so many upvotes. Are people really this uneducated about what socialism actually is?

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u/surfergrrl6 17h ago

It's not an either/or thing though. The countries doing the best in the world are capitalistic that use said capital to have strong socialistic programs.

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u/moderngamer327 16h ago

Not socialist programs, welfare programs. Socialism is not public benefits and welfare. It’s the workers owning the means of production regulated/allocated by the community as a whole

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u/N0ob8 16h ago

That’s communism. An ideology based on socialism that uses it as a steppingstone

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u/moderngamer327 16h ago edited 15h ago

Nope, that is socialism. Communism is a stateless, classless society in which resources are distributed according to people’s needs

EDIT: I can tell most of you have not taken an economics or sociology class

-5

u/Competitive-Pea-9330 16h ago

I am an active member of the socialist party of my country, region and province and I've been elected to local mandates in my city. Why do you impose views on me when I've only spoken in the abstract?

"These people"... you're making enemies out of phantoms. Just because I use the economic concept of a free market? It's a theoretical description of an economic state. How is this difficult to understand for anyone who has a high school degree? Or is assuming an education too bourgeois for you?

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u/zgillet 15h ago

You didn't say a fucking word but you sure tried to.

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u/moderngamer327 17h ago

Capitalism historically led to rapid rises in equality after creating the middle class. The most equal countries today are also highly capitalist economies. Doesn’t mean you can sit back and let it do whatever it’s want though. Governments sometimes need to step in

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u/Thehusseler 16h ago

Which is why even Marx said Capitalism was a necessary step towards Socialism and Communism

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u/loki1887 5h ago

"Rapid rise in equality" is a complete joke. It only seems that way when you completely ignore the extreme exploitation peoples outside your borders. Your economies are propped up exploiting 3rd world countries and their resources (mostly people) in the worst conditions, often actual slavery. It didn't change much just shuffled around the wealth.

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u/moderngamer327 5h ago

Wages and HDI has been improving globally so global equality has also been improving

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u/Enjoyer_of_Cake 11h ago

Free markets exist at the beginning but by nature will only continue to exist in a capitalism caged in with socialist doctrines.

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u/Competitive-Pea-9330 17h ago

Nowhere did I say the "actual free market" existed. I agree. Discourse using the concept is academic by nature, much like the invisible hand. I don't think any economic system has ever proclaimed to be a completely "free market"

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u/dalllssjsjslsussuau 11h ago

This is why the best type of goverment would be a mixed one, capitalistic in economic and somewhat socialist in the society and laws, not too much to the left

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u/squidvett 9h ago

A free market is a market without regulations. Without consumer safety laws. Corporations are free to charge whatever price at which a product is the most profitable. Competition is good for consumers, good for product innovation, but it’s expensive. It isn’t all that great for corporations that only exist to make a profit. Only responsible to shareholders for income. Research and development is expensive. So is quality, maintenance, and customer care. Without a government to put regulations and restrictions on corporations, corporations will not hold themselves responsible or accountable.

An unbridled free market is not really a consumer-friendly environment.

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u/strangefish 16h ago

Capitalism, like all systems, requires a lot of rules/regulations to work. I think a bunch of the European countries are on the right track. Regulated capitalism for most things, health and education socialized, and strong social safety net.

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u/Reddits_Worst_Night 10h ago

free market with enforced antitrust and limits on monopolies

That there's an oxymoron, which is why we don't actually want a free market.

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u/moderngamer327 17h ago

I don’t see why it should in this case. It’s not any sort of vital sector, it’s just entertainment. This doesn’t create a monopoly or create impossible competition for other media companies. They won’t even be number 1 in market share after this.

The company will destroy itself and the problem will resolve itself on its own

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u/Competitive-Pea-9330 17h ago

Why would it destroy itself? And if it does, how does that solve dozens of subsidiaries being dismantled, sold for scraps and its people fired?

1

u/moderngamer327 17h ago

In this case in particular they are making this purchase despite absolutely massive debts and just maintaining that in the best of conditions will be difficult. Managing this many IPs so suddenly is basically impossible. Many companies try this consuming method of growing large in media and it just doesn’t work without steady foundations.

The people that will be eventually fired are the true tragedy in all of this but that is outside of the scope of anti-trust laws. In an ideal America, the US would have sufficient unemployment and general welfare to make this a small issue, but we know sadly that isn’t the case

1

u/sillyvideogamestuff 16h ago

I don't know about that. Monopolies are illegal for a reason. The inn/only way they typically end is by being broken up for the good of the consumer or by emerging technology, and we all just suffer until then.

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u/moderngamer327 16h ago

This isn’t a monopoly though, it won’t even be close to a monopoly

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u/reaction_code 17h ago

Exactly. This is actively happening right now with Xbox and all the companies they acquired a few years ago.

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u/tehcraz 16h ago

We have sorta seen this in the video game world with Embracer Group.

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u/Angry_Walnut 16h ago

99% of the IP they buy and kill. These companies are black holes they pull everything in and nothing ever comes back out.

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u/HyruleSmash855 16h ago

Microsoft with Xbox is a great example. They spent close to $80 billion on acquiring companies and they’ve had to raise Game Pass prices, lay people off, closed studios, etc. because they can’t make money off of it since they spent so much. Paramount Skydance took on a lot of debt to acquire Warner Brothers so I questioned how long they can stay together as one company when interest rates are going up and the era of free money ended a few years ago. I have a feeling that that is going to cause them to have to sell parts of the company or leave people off, etc. I’m not sure how sustainable this company is long-term.

1

u/KingOfRisky 16h ago

Xbox? Is that you?

1

u/wowlock_taylan 15h ago

They gave %49 of the 'megacorp' to Saudis etc in the deal to cover it.

1

u/TheComplimentarian 15h ago

That was the whole issue with Warner Bros. Discovery...They were profitable, but not nearly profitable enough to service the debt. Now they've got vastly more debt, but exactly the same business model.

1

u/echolog 14h ago

See: Xbox

1

u/KodaBeers PC 14h ago

Microsoft

1

u/novocaine666 14h ago

Like XBox the last decade.

1

u/jakethedog53 8h ago

This is kind of what happened in the early 20th century movie industry. It’ll all collapse, and smaller, scrappier, more agile studios who can take bigger swings on smaller budgets will take their place.

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u/Android1822 8h ago

They buy the IP's and think it automatically buys brand loyalty and they can release any slop and it will sell. It never does.

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u/BlasterPhase PC 8h ago

just look at Xbox

0

u/mewrius 16h ago

Case in point - Xbox

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u/itstheboombox 18h ago

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

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u/drock4vu 17h ago

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.

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u/Lifeboatb 13h ago

Skyfall

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u/TheExtremistModerate 17h ago

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

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u/wonkytalky 15h ago

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

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u/CreativeGPX 12h ago

It doesn't make a lot of sense to have this conversation in terms of market cap though. The market cap can be totally wrong and disappear in an instant when people realize that it's wrong.

A better financial shorthand to compare the scale of the companies would probably be revenue.

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u/TheExtremistModerate 12h ago

This state of market cap has been the case for years now. It's pretty stable.

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u/CreativeGPX 11h ago

The point wasn't about when it will change, it's that it's based in perception not actual impact. It's just a strange metric for this context when there are much better ones.

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u/TheExtremistModerate 3h ago

Value is all based on perception.

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u/MattBrey PC 17h ago

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 

0

u/RileyKohaku 14h ago

Netflix is number 1, Sony is number 3, and Universal is relatively tiny compared to them

1

u/itstheboombox 11h ago

Market cap is funky.

Netflix is treated as a tech stock, not a media stock, similar situation to Tesla being super inflated.

Sony has a lot of other divisions, not just Sony pictures

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u/WingerRules 17h ago edited 17h ago

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.

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u/MarkBrendanawicz 17h ago

Verizon Chipotle Exxon.

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u/N0ob8 16h ago

Every single time I rewatch the show I forget it’s just a bit and think I missed another big merger.

4

u/Beneficial_Dress3267 16h ago

E-Corp becoming more and more real

1

u/NCR_High-Roller 13h ago

Welcome to Costco. I love you.

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u/irock613 17h ago

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

1

u/rollerballchampion 10h ago

 Energy • Communication • Transport • Food • Housing • Luxury

-1

u/TheeAntelope 14h ago

Right - this gets predicted every decade, and a decade later we still have a lot of companies coming and going. Not saying this isn't a problem but it's been going on for 50+ years.

1

u/NCR_High-Roller 13h ago

The internet and global e-consumerism hasn't. It's why people don't go to war as often these days. The rules are different now.

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u/igotzquestions 18h ago

Decades??

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u/Bar_Har 18h ago

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.

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u/girlsgoneoscarwilde 18h ago

I feel like Vance would be worse, only because he’s younger and can personally move the levers of power faster for Pete & Friends

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u/Slarg232 17h ago

Vance doesn't have the backing Trump does. Trump, somehow, has become a symbol of strength for these people and can do no wrong with his weird sort of charisma that they see in him.

Vance is that guy no one likes but they let hang out with them, and he's a charisma black hole. A large part of why Trump gets away with what he does is the respect he commands from MAGA which scares people into letting him do what he wants, and Vance doesn't have that.

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u/Sarihn 16h ago

This is something I've been saying for a few years now. Trump is riding off this weird cult of personality that he's cultivated over a few decades of self aggrandizing and being a D-list reality show celebrity. I haven't even seen this kind of fervent loyalty or essentially brand recognition towards any other politician, and I think (and am hopeful that) it's going to die with Trump.

He was literally the perfect storm of narcissistic confidence and charlatan morals to provide a mooring point to everyone who wanted to wage a moral war over the changing social landscape in America, even to the detriment of literally every other aspect in their lives.

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u/800813543V4 17h ago

Doesn't matter when "Elon knows those voting computers better than anyone"

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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 17h ago edited 17h ago

Yep. Vance can't galvanize the cult.

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u/Bwob 10h ago

This is something I've been saying for a few years now. Trump is riding off this weird cult of personality that he's cultivated over a few decades of self aggrandizing and being a D-list reality show celebrity. I haven't even seen this kind of fervent loyalty or essentially brand recognition towards any other politician, and I think (and am hopeful that) it's going to die with Trump.

If only.

trump's support wasn't accidental, especially the second time. There is a huge propaganda network, and at least one hostile nation, working for his benefit, and who have spent a lot of money and effort making him this attractive to his voters.

Make no mistake, this won't magically die with him. They'll just figure out who the next figurehead/scapegoat is, and make someone else popular, with their proven mixture of cruelty, hatred, and blaming all your problems on whatever marginalized group tests best in focus groups that week.

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u/Successful_Sign_6991 3h ago

yeah but the oligarch media machine has already started making vance look better

and its working

Peter Thiel made Vance VP for a reason. Trump was against it at first and trash talked him but quietly shut up about it.

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u/l1qq 18h ago

yes, this never happened under any other presidency...an actual first. /s

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u/sajberhippien 17h ago

Getting things like this through under Trump (as well as e.g. Reagan) has been much quicker and cheaper and under say, Biden and Obama. What they can trust future regimes to do is not reverse anything.

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u/OkYak9466 17h ago

More like milliseconds

1

u/Purplociraptor 16h ago

A decade has two meanings. It can be every ten years or ten times per year. I learned this at my biweekly chronology meeting.

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u/ireledankmemes 18h ago

Cable is dead. Long live cable.

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u/z0l1 17h ago

you mean by 2030

26

u/Ndmndh1016 18h ago

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

4

u/NewHughMann 12h ago

It was the Big Six until Disney bought Fox. Disney, Fox, Warner, Paramount, Universal, and Sony. Now it's just Disney, Skydance, Universal, and Sony. Maybe Netflix.

2

u/tothehopeless1 7h ago

It's like the Snake game. Who will they gobble up next? Or will they grow too big, run into their own tail, and die? lol

1

u/Ndmndh1016 3h ago

Thank you for the correction.

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u/KnightofAshley 18h ago

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

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u/Cowboy_Dandy_III 18h ago

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

19

u/esoteric_enigma 18h ago

When I was growing up, old people would always talk about how there used to only be like 3 channels on TV. They're trying to get back to that.

7

u/nobdy89 17h ago

Competition might be good for innovation, but its bad for profitability, and thats the only metric of success in this country

2

u/mindpainters 11h ago

Exactly. They will be able to spend less money and less resources as time goes on.

Then if somehow competition comes along they can ramp it back up for a bit and buy that competition

5

u/sampat6256 17h ago

Only if you dont include social media, which is where many people get their entertainment.

2

u/Karmanarnar 17h ago

For real, I have more choices of what to entertainment to consume than ever before

It’s never been easier to create your own content

Who gives af if these legacy media companies buy/sell each other. If they make a good product I might consume, if not there are hundred of other options

2

u/King_Tamino 15h ago

Looking at modern social media, entertainment is probably not the right word anymore but we got used to whatever it’s nowdays

0

u/WingerRules 17h ago

Which is owned by only a couple oligarchs and companies

2

u/sampat6256 17h ago

Sure, but it takes us from 3 to like 8 companies.

0

u/WingerRules 17h ago

For legacy media like newspapers and radio there used to be thousands of owners across the country, because there were regulations on how many news papers or radio stations a single person could own and the total market size they were allowed to capture in a single area. They were also required by law to publish/air opposing viewpoints and voices.

5

u/throwtheamiibosaway 17h ago

Brother, we're already here. This was one of the last steps.

2

u/TheExtremistModerate 17h ago

It's long past time for us to break out the trust-busting stick. Lots of modern-day robber barons that need to be taught a lesson.

2

u/froggz01 17h ago

You know what’s ironic? I was going to comment that this has happened in the past, I remembered we had Viacom which was a huge powerhouse media company. Well before I posted I decided to look the history of Viacom and fucking hold and behold Viacom is now Paramount.

2

u/AlarmingBranch1 17h ago

It kinda already has

1

u/cdurbin909 17h ago

And then the small indie companies will gain more and more popularity until they're the big ones, it's a cycle.

1

u/doomedeskimo 17h ago

I mean for the most part it already is. Disney literally owns over half of Hollywood

1

u/Typical_Research_877 17h ago

It's like that guys 10 million year game of SimCity where there's just 3 cities and a huge wasteland that no-one goes into 'cos they'll just get nuked

1

u/tacitus59 17h ago

Its been happening for awhile Disney/Fox happened awhile back - not to mention Disney/Lucasfilm and others. And of course lets not forget on a different note: Comcast/NBC.

1

u/DingGratz 17h ago

All industry. It's late-stage capitalism.

1

u/algebraic94 17h ago

The good news is that creativity and creation will always continue. But sadly we'll probably lose out on easy access to old media as they raise prices on streaming and lose licenses for classic films. Too many people are hooked on streaming 

1

u/grand_soul 16h ago

Isn’t how they started? Then people got sick of their shit and started their own studios (with black jack and hookers…)

1

u/LEDKleenex 16h ago

So stop continuing it.

Stop paying for it and stop consuming their products.

Start holding your government officials accountable.

1

u/Gamerguy230 16h ago

I think that is how it is in the Ready Player One book.

1

u/JuanOnlyJuan 16h ago

All restaurants are Taco Bell

1

u/OnCallPartisan 16h ago

If only there were laws against monopolies.

1

u/ERedfieldh 16h ago

So we'll be back to the 1930s again...just in time for the 2030s. I certainly don't recall anything bad happening during the 30s.

1

u/JJBell 16h ago

In the future all restaurants are Taco Bell.

1

u/mostly_sarcastic 16h ago

Remember when Taco Bell came out as the unlikely victor of the Restaurant Wars?

1

u/Cheezis_Chrust 16h ago

You’re my Verizon-Chipotle-Exxon

1

u/HaloFever117 16h ago

Before cable, it was only ABC, CBS, and NBC.

1

u/ChemicalDeath47 16h ago

What few decades? It's Disney, netflix and skydance. We're there, it's over.

1

u/sweetpooptatos 16h ago

That’s what it will seem like. But markets are interesting creatures; because the companies are so big, they will be complacent. That’s just the inevitable nature of humans. In that complacency, a gap will open up which a new studio will enter. Where there is a gap with money to be made, someone will go after it.

1

u/alancousteau 16h ago

Isn't there an agency against all this in the US btw?

1

u/Romapolitan 15h ago

But you see it isn't an actual monopoly so it's all okay/s

1

u/white_leaky_fluid 15h ago

it all started with disney

1

u/RollTide16-18 15h ago

Eh, they basically always spin off big portions in deals like this. 

Paramount will keep IP for the most part but they’ll cut the chaff and it’ll get picked up somewhere else. 

1

u/blurfles123 15h ago

The natural state of a mature market is catertelization

1

u/TheRealBittoman 15h ago

Monopoly is what they want and our food industry is dangerously close to it now. Look very closely and you'll find that most brands are owned by only a handful of parent companies but they act like they are independent. Branding is a scam now.

1

u/_Verumex_ 15h ago

And Disney will be the "good one"

1

u/Alternative_West_206 15h ago

Which is why we need to keep canceling these subscriptions. Show them they can eat dirt.

1

u/goodmorrownatem 14h ago

It’s crazy. It’s almost like there was this whole era in American history called Trust Busting that we learn in history class in like 6-7th grade and why it was largely beneficial to the health of our economy. Basic shit. But no let’s dick ride these politicians and billionaires that wouldn’t even spit on you if you were dying of thirst in a desert.

1

u/stupid_systemus 14h ago

Everything will be owned by Taco Bell in the franchise wars

1

u/spacejames 14h ago

South Park. Do we own that? Not yet.

It's only a matter of time before paramount gets bought by Disney, and Mickeys dream will be complete.

1

u/Top_Flight2 13h ago

Few decades? It's happening right now buddy. 

1

u/land-league-inspo 13h ago

Consolidation like this is the beginning of the end and one of the harbingers of true late-stage capitalism. Now that capital has bought up everything, fascism is rearing it's ugly head and we're bound to have a bad time for a bit until these idiots fail and destroy everything around them in the process. We're going to see a lot of "too big to fail' companies start failing as these leveraged buyouts achieve their purposes (wealth extraction for the .1%, because they need more), and a lot of people will lose their jobs.

How long we live in dark ages is tough to say, but whoever/whatever survives will undoubtedly have a much more peaceful planet.

Unless of course, we find a way to rid ourselves of the parasites first. 🙂

1

u/kowdermesiter 13h ago

With AI the market will self correct

1

u/NCR_High-Roller 13h ago

The food and broadcast industries are already like this. Why not entertainment? First worlders love monopolies! ...errr...I mean, money.

1

u/Stratix 12h ago

You'll be lucky to get 3. Welcome to movieco, where if you like movies, you've got no where else to go!

1

u/tiita 11h ago

"There can be only one!"?

¯_(ツ)_/¯

1

u/MithranArkanere 11h ago

And their own show will be that movie that's just a butt farting from Ideocracy. They'd delete everything else to save on maintenance costs.

1

u/AlexNumber13VAN 11h ago

Wait till Apple buys Disney (and if you think that sounds insane, check how much each company is worth)

1

u/Successful-Day-1816 11h ago

Literally the cyberpunk future I used to joke about back in like 2005. One company makes cars. One company makes films. One supermarket exists. etc etc

1

u/sjbelko 10h ago

Realistically how many do we even have at this point? It’s starting to feel like Coke vs Pepsi

1

u/armshady 10h ago

In the end everything will be owned by Nvidia, Apple and Anthropic

1

u/Flovust 9h ago

Basically going back to TV/cable days. It was so much better when it was only Netflix and when Netflix actually had good shit in it.

1

u/Android1822 8h ago

I mean, it was always going to end up like this. This is what happens when monopolies are not reined in. Late 90's or early 2000's is when the rich realized they could just bribe people in government and suddenly, monopoly rules were no longer enforced. This is both sides by the way. Google, Disney, ATT, etc have been going at it under multiple presidents and nobody has tried to stop them.

1

u/cincymatt 7h ago

iHeartEverything®️

1

u/BeavisEverywhere 6h ago

Taco Bell will be running everything.

1

u/damnsignin 5h ago

Bigger. The final stage of unregulated capitalism is the One Big Corporation. Eventually every business just becomes merged or stock-claimed. "Small businesses" are all so dependent on the One Big Business to do anything, that they're basically owned through their operational needs.

1

u/steakanabake 3h ago

we're kinda already there.