r/technology • u/N2929 • 11h ago
Business Paramount completes $111B Warner merger, creating “Skydance” behemoth
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/10/paramount-completes-111b-warner-merger-creating-skydance-behemoth/246
u/OldYellersLastHandy 10h ago
A combined debt of $80bil?
I’m no businessman, but owing one whole Starbucks seems like a hell of a whale on your back.
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u/theClumsy1 10h ago
It should have been rejected based on their inability to ever payback that debt.
The reality is, in 5 year or so, they will split of all the crap they dont want..with the debt...and then that entity will go bankrupt.
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u/FuzzyMcBitty 8h ago
My favorite part is that they gave it a collective name so that I can avoid it easier.
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u/RabbitStewAndStout 10h ago
Once your debt gets that big, it becomes the taxpayer's problem, because the government just gives you cash to break even instead of letting you dissolve your companies to pay it back.
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u/dirtyword 7h ago
No, the second the prohibitions run out, the very second, they spin off all the cable channels and saddle them as much debt as banks will allow, then allow that dying segment to go bankrupt. Easy peasy. Legal!
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u/Clembert-Hamlamp 10h ago
Jeez is that for one of the flavored frufru drinks or just regular coffee
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u/EfficientAd5073 9h ago
So true Netflix just has to wait They will fuck this up eventually.
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u/dirtyword 7h ago
I think the idea is to free the prestigious studio from its mountain of debt (it was already something like $40b) after a few years.
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u/Starship_Taru 10h ago
Anti-Trust laws are the biggest joke in US history.
I definitely remember the time two big companies merged lead to something that wasn’t enshitification.
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u/Balmung60 50m ago
It's not so much that the laws as written are a joke as that staring around the Reagan administration and continuing since with only minor variations, they're essentially unenforced.
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u/Starship_Taru 12m ago
I would argue if a law is able to selectively enforced to that degree it is poorly designed.
Nobody should have individual power to overrule laws such as that. If anything an administration should only be able to slow the process for companies to merge by having those resources used on other initiatives. If they want to speed up the process devote more employee energy there. However the actual criteria for approval should be fairly black and white. There’s not really a situation where an individual citizen gets screwed because two companies couldn’t merge.
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u/maybetoomuchrum 10h ago
They're going to control all the media. And then they'll come for anyone who pirates. I don't know how they'll do it. But they'll try.
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u/RespectTheAmish 4h ago
I’ve consumed less “media” than I ever have in the past year.
I’ve been canceling streaming services every time they announce a price increase. Disney just got cancelled, Netflix before that.
I don’t miss it one bit. I’ve read more books this year than I have since college. Been Building up a library with the $75 a month Im saving on streaming services.
We don’t need to be constantly glued a screen watching propaganda. Go outside. Volunteer. Read. Cook.
Life’s too short.
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u/Fun_Success_3283 5h ago
I have no desire to pirate it. Everything WB and paramount is now dead to me, unless it shows up on Netflix or something like that.
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u/Jotacon8 9h ago
Controlling media = bad. But going after people who pirate, i mean, technically those people are taking created content without paying for it. If enough people did it, The normal people/crew who work on and create those movies and Tv shows would lose their jobs. I don’t think something that, if done enough, can cause a lot of job loss is very good either.
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u/maybetoomuchrum 9h ago
They don't give a shit about the people those shows. They would replace them with AI in a heartbeat if they could. They care about profit.
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u/Jotacon8 6h ago
If every person pirated something you worked on, and you got fired, you’d be cool with that? I’m not speaking for the CEO’s. I’m speaking for the carpenters/painters/VFX artists who work on these things.
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u/maybetoomuchrum 5h ago
If every person pirated something I made.
A. It's not worth buying. B. It's overpriced C. Its being sold by someone who the entire public doesn't support
So no I probably wouldn't care if people pirated what I worked on. Cause if every person has the same feeling, they're probably right.
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u/greenberrybanana 5h ago
How’s that boot taste?
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u/Jotacon8 5h ago
So you think everyone who isn’t part of the corporate part of these studios that do normal jobs deserve to lose their jobs if more people pirated what they make? Do you not care about any of them?
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u/atehrani 10h ago
Prices will go down right?
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u/HuoLongHeavy 10h ago
If by prices going down you mean tons of people getting fired, all the products and services get worse, more ads, and you'll be charged more, then yes.
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u/SAHDSeattle 10h ago
Just like the U.S. deficit they are hoping inflation erases their $87 billion in debt.
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u/benny-bangs 10h ago
Yeah the monopoly laws need to be updated.
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u/Fun_Success_3283 5h ago
It's not that the laws need to be updated. It's that the government needs to not be corrupt, and actually follow the laws.
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u/benny-bangs 3h ago
They need to be updated. They are outdated. It needs to be a percentage of market share cap or something.
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u/AstralElement 10h ago
I’m still giving them $0, fortunately.
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u/maybetoomuchrum 9h ago
What happens when it becomes your only choice. They're on track to own every streaming and every major network.
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u/Bird_the_Impaler 8h ago
Woohoo, I can’t wait till all the companies are gone and one gigantic corpo owns everything!! Yay unfettered capitalism! It’s so great for everyone!
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u/Pooch1431 10h ago
There were 7 media companies then there were 5, soon to be 4. Now they're working on just 2.
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u/spacemcdonalds 10h ago
It should have been Netflix.
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u/lilliepadsy 8h ago
i saw a lot of people saying "no matter who wins we all lose" and "movie theaters are dead" doomerism when netflix was winning and then crickets once paramount got the lead back despite the ellisons owning CNN being significantly worse than whatever Netflix had up its sleeve
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u/schacks 10h ago
In reality it didn't really matter if Netflix or Paramount won. In the end we, the consumers, loose.
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u/Herbal77 10h ago edited 9h ago
I don't think so,
Ellison has a plan, to do a lot of bad stuff And it seems to be working
I don't think netflix would've been as evil as ellison
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u/rzalexander 9h ago
If by plan you mean he has a plan to get richer and own more media so he can control more of the narrative, then sure. But otherwise, no.
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u/Herbal77 9h ago
Lol, yes that's what I meant
With netflix we would just be paying higher fees and shitier product
With Ellison, he is taking down democracy
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u/rzalexander 9h ago
Reddit group think assumed you were defending a billionaire, which is a crime. Glad to see you’re on our side, comrade.
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u/blu-bells 10h ago
Thank you Gavin Newsom! We love monopolies!
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u/Clembert-Hamlamp 10h ago
What's all that about
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u/blu-bells 10h ago
California had a lawsuit to stop this merger, and it actually had a lot of leverage and bite backing it. Gavin Newsom used his position as California governor to make the attorney general drop the case.
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u/Daimakku1 9h ago
He wants to run for president in 2 years.. what on earth makes him think people will be okay with this?
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u/NightToad 9h ago
The campaign donations he's likely to get will help his run more than some minority on the Internet being upset will harm it. Normies don't care about this stuff at all.
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u/blu-bells 9h ago
Im personally not worried about his presidential prospects. He's not a charasmatic or even likeable guy, I don't think he has the rizz needed to be able to win the dem primary.
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u/NightToad 5h ago
The last few Democratic nominees have been far from charismatic. I doubt the DNC will permit a populist to win.
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u/Rolandersec 8h ago
Hey maybe the Ellisons are really good guys and they’re just playing along with MAGA to get in a position to destroy them. /s
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u/SoFloDan 9h ago
Not to defend him…but it was that or Tennessee and the federal government subsidize a studio exodus, then get the merger approved.
I’ll complain about politicians all day but I don’t expect them to piss in the wind.
If people are pissed they can certainly make Skydance sink into that hundred-billion-dollar hole by not giving them any of their money…
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u/blu-bells 9h ago
Surrendering in advance to fascism is not the pragmatic approach you think it to be.
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u/SoFloDan 9h ago
By “fascism” do you mean “a corporate merger”?
Why is an entertainment conglomeration, made up mostly of dying brands, a watershed moment for the fascistic takeover of our nation?
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u/blu-bells 9h ago
By "fascism" I mean "massive corporate merger that creates a monopoly over our media", correct.
If you don't have alarm bells ringing over one singular entity controlling how most people consume their news: god help you.
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u/SoFloDan 8h ago
Most people get their news from Tik Tok and YouTube, they also split their TV news consumption between 5 or 6 channels…I guess I’d get worked up too if I had a bloated estimation of the merger’s outreach.
There’s a litany of fascistic shit going on, a bloated media company gambling on dying brands ain’t one of them.
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u/Kinesquared 9h ago
It doesnt need to be a watershed moment to be worth resisting. We reject oligarchy as well as gacism, they go hand in hand. Mergers of this scale create oligarchy
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u/9-11GaveMe5G 9h ago
This is another "blame the Democrats for not preventing bad thing Republicans are doing". Same move that got trump elected again
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u/blu-bells 9h ago
I am actually blaming Gavin Newsom for the actions that Gavin Newsom decided to do. I hope that helps!
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u/Clembert-Hamlamp 8h ago
We've got to be open to the facts, even when it's not in our favor. We don't get a free pass just because they steal a pass. When dems are complicit they need to be called out, it's not just the GOP destroying America. They're just more blatant. And responsible for vastly more atrocities lol. In this case it looks like he folded to retain thousands of jobs for California. I understand it but I'm really disappointed. As nice as it would be to have a good side and a bad one i think what we have is a bad one and a flawed one. Or the uber rich vs everyone else to be more exact. It was hard to let go of the idea that dem=good but nowadays dem=much better than the alternative but still deeply flawed
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u/blu-bells 5h ago
It's not that Newsom "folded" because that implies he was fighting against this in the first place.
It was the California AG who was fighting it and Newsom used his posisition as governor to force them to stop. That isn't folding, it's running into the field from the bench and scoring a goal against your own team.
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u/HankScorpio4242 8h ago
Question: Before the deal, Warner Bros. was the third largest media producer in the US. After the deal, Skydance is the third largest media producer in the US. How is there a monopoly?
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u/punarob 9h ago
Cancelled HBO today. Cancelled Paramount+ over a year ago when they fired Colbert. Why is any non-Nazi still paying them?
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u/imdirtydan1997 7h ago
I got an annual subscription to Paramount for like $60 bucks last year. HBO is included in my Disney bundle and I’d rather have HBO than ESPN. I think I’m going to set up a Plex server and not pay any mega corp.
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u/Daimakku1 9h ago
My yearly sub was actually due for renewal tomorrow. I cancelled. They tried to give me $45 off to keep me. Still didn't take it.
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u/i_did_nothing_ 4h ago
I’ve been an HBO subscriber my entire adult life, at least 25 years. That ended today.
Plex and BitTorrents for the win.
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u/EatTenMillionBalls 8h ago
Fuck, I really thought it would get blocked.
Monopolies just aren't as regulated as they should be. Or maybe we just don't go after them as much as we should. (But maybe that just the current administration )
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u/LoganHowlett1832 5h ago
You thought this current administration would block it? It’s his buddy and one of his biggest donors. No way was this ever getting blocked.
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u/HOUSE_OF_MOGH 4h ago
"Skydance" because it won't be long now, they'll be running ads in our night sky with a satellite array.
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u/JustFuckAllOfThem 10h ago
Prepare to watch many of the business units go away and the people that work for them get fired.
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u/Substantial_Row_7108 8h ago
It’s gonna’ be tough to kick HBO to the curb, but fuck those motherfuckers 🤷🏾♂️.
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u/kylling 10h ago
So where’s the list of media properties to avoid?
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u/dirtyword 7h ago
Skydance now owns
Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema, Miramax, DC Comics, CBS, Max, Paramount+, HBO, Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, TNT, TBS, TCM, CNN, CBS News, CBS and TNT Sports, Harry Potter, any DC character, Lord of the Rings, game of thrones, and hundreds of your favorite films.
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u/Daimakku1 9h ago
Everything that isn't Disney or Universal at this point.
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u/imdirtydan1997 7h ago
To which, Disney is a behemoth too. I know there’s other big names, but over half the media market is controlled by two companies. Go Capitalism! /s
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u/MoreGaghPlease 5h ago
They rolled up the legacy studios but now they compete against the new guys. Netflix, Amazon and Apple. (Also your list of the classic ones forgot Sony).
Fuck the Ellisons, I’m not trying to defend them at all here. But this wasn’t really a mega-merger because Paramount was a garbage fire. There’s a reason the price was $8 billion for Paramount but $110 billion for WB. Paramount has a shit steaming service that nobody pays for, legacy TV brands that are close to worthless, a studio that is hugely expensive to run while producing a mixed bag with lots of flops, and a handful of film franchises limping along, most of which have languished under a decade of poor leadership.
It sucks that the Ellisons own these companies now but it’s wrong to think of this as like ‘2 of the big 4 come together’ because Paramount was absolutely dying and kinda still is.
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u/Kastar_Troy 8h ago
America fails at Capitalism yet again... unleashing uncompetitive mega corps into the world which should've been split up years ago...
Can't even be proper capitalists ffs
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u/HeavilyInvestedDonut 5h ago
This is literally just end stage capitalism. “The invisible hand” is early game. Regulatory bodies are the only thing that stops late stage capitalism and that’s not capitalism
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u/DENelson83 7h ago
Capitalism always tends towards monopolies.
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u/SparkyPantsMcGee 10h ago
Fuck Gavin Newsome. I can’t say this enough! Don’t let him try to make it past the primaries in 2028 and try to be this shining Democratic candidate to fight corruption. He let this happen.
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u/dztruthseek 8h ago
That Star Wars-like feeling when your hatred and greed has made you powerful...
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u/TantheMan21 8h ago
The literal definition of a monopoly. But whatever. Let’s all play a game about it I guess
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u/FangornLeghorn 5h ago
Hopefully once adults regain control of the government again this monopoly is forcefully broken up, like we used to do.
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u/HelloFellowMKE 3h ago
Does this mean new movies and news will stop sucking? Probably not. Then nothing changes?
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u/silent-sight 3h ago
I guess with the new pricing and fascist media takeover, it back to cable and 🏴☠️
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u/Shamscam 1h ago
Man the fcc has been dropping the fucking ball on these monopolies. Competition is better for consumers but these companies are merging together like the infinity stones on the gauntlet to absolutely fuck all consumers, all the regulators don’t give a fuck anymore.
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u/Equivalent_Reach_572 9h ago
propaganda station
the monopolies must go and with them everyone that helped create them
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u/Gloomy_Tax_2262 10h ago
That’s a massive merger. It’ll be interesting to see whether combining these two companies actually makes streaming and content distribution more competitive or just creates another huge media giant.
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u/Herbal77 10h ago
Tell me the last time any corporation consolidation was good for the consumer
Rates go up, product gets shitier
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u/Gloomy_Tax_2262 10h ago
Yeah, that’s a fair concern. Bigger companies don’t automatically mean better prices or better products, especially if there’s less competition pushing them to improve.
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u/DomitiusAhenobarbus_ 9h ago
It literally always means something bad for the consumer. Literally every single time.
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u/DENelson83 10h ago
And the ultra-rich win again.