Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros • Hacker News Board

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#161

Post by VanTheBrand » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:28 PM UTC

WorldMaker wrote: post #127

bsimpson wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skydance is also known as the then-obscure company that picked up Pixar head John Lasseter when his reputation for being overly affectionate got him pushed out of Disney. It's one of the Ellison family's forays into media. David's sister/Larry's daughter Megan has Annapurna. Annapurna produced the Spike Jonze's AI romance "Her" and many of the the most prominent indie games of the last decade (Outer Wilds, Cocoon, St…

Right. Also the weird part of the Skydance Lasseter drama is not just that is happened once, there, but that it happened at nearly the same time but worse at Annapurna. Annapurna games division that had done so well last decade got purged by rehiring someone to oversee it who had been fired the first time for the "overly affectionate" types of problems just before Annapurna's "Golden Age" and was hired as much to bet…

David Ellison was an intern at Pixar in college and has a personal relationship with Lasseter. Annapurna games was under his sister and has no management connection to Skydance.

I guess if there is any common denominator it’s a familial default to loyalty vs fear of public perception? Not the worst trait in the world despite leading to this outcome.

Also to be fair Lasseter’s “serial harassment” (while real and I’m not trying to discount) consisted of his insistence that everyone hug him when greeting him. So while you can make the argument his firing had merit, his ”issue” is pretty easy to prevent at a new firm: No hugs policy

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#162

Post by lotsofpulp » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:29 PM UTC

sippeangelo wrote: post #75

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> thought I read somewhere paramount is in survival mode Paramount's multi-year sale process deserves an HBO miniseries. But at this point, it's a de facto LBO platform for the Ellisons.

But who's gonna produce that once Paramount owns HBO?

The US has freedom of speech, so anyone who wants to spend money producing a tv show or movie about Paramount’s sale, regardless of HBO’s ownership.

I think it would be quite boring, though

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#163

Post by whycome » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:32 PM UTC

KumaBear wrote: post #153

kenjackson wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that what Kushner wants is CNN. If they could make CBS+CNN lean conservative like Fox, they pull off a potential to swing the country via news media.

That's a shitty gamble when online media is where it is at now a days. These big media networks are dinosaurs hanging on by a thread.

2028 is closer than you think. Dinosaur media still connect with dinosaur-voting audiences.

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#164

Post by vel0city » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:33 PM UTC

bnjms wrote: post #147

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Paramount is dead? Paramount broke its tradition of barely treading water [1] in 2023 by booking multibillion cable losses [2] before being acquired in a de facto LBO [3] at half the price it traded at in 2005 [4]. (90% off its 2021 peak, though that may have been meme-y.) Paramount Skydance–the one bidding for Warner–has $15bn of debt on $600mm operating cash flow supporting $15bn of equity trading above book valu…

How does one learn to think about companies buying each other. It’s counterintuitive to me for an entity with stock to buy stock in another entity which could itself own stock in the first. The way you write it I can’t see why WB would be allowed to sell itself when it makes the most sense for Patamount to go bankrupt some time from now and be split up amongst US media; Netflix/HBO/Disney/Peacock

You're missing the key part. The Paramount deal includes billions in Saudi money funneled through the President's son in law.

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#165

Post by Hikikomori » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:38 PM UTC

KumaBear wrote: post #153

kenjackson wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that what Kushner wants is CNN. If they could make CBS+CNN lean conservative like Fox, they pull off a potential to swing the country via news media.

That's a shitty gamble when online media is where it is at now a days. These big media networks are dinosaurs hanging on by a thread.

Online media where they have x and Facebook already?

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#166

Post by dabockster » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:42 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

indigodaddy wrote: post #8

Does WB have to pay the breakup fee to Netflix if a Paramount hostile takeover succeeds?

It looks like it. $2.8bn by Warner Brothers to Netflix [1]. If the vote looks close, Paramount would be expected to raise their bid to cover that cost. [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065280/000119312525... 8.3(a)

The failed merger and similar clawback clause between Kroger and Albertsons is currently destroying a significant part of the supply chain for food in the Pacific Northwest. Grocery stores that have been open for 50-75 years - stores where whole neighborhoods and towns were built around - are closing forever, leaving those areas as food deserts.

Either way, this entertainment merger is going to get ugly. Consumers are absolutely going to get harmed either way with that clawback clause.

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#167

Post by thisisnotauser » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:52 PM UTC

dabockster wrote: post #166

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like it. $2.8bn by Warner Brothers to Netflix [1]. If the vote looks close, Paramount would be expected to raise their bid to cover that cost. [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065280/000119312525... 8.3(a)

The failed merger and similar clawback clause between Kroger and Albertsons is currently destroying a significant part of the supply chain for food in the Pacific Northwest. Grocery stores that have been open for 50-75 years - stores where whole neighborhoods and towns were built around - are closing forever, leaving those areas as food deserts. Either way, this entertainment merger is going to get ugly. Consumers ar…

Except you need food to live and tv shows are an artificially scarce resource that's actually free to distribute in unlimited quantities, so the harm is very different.

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#168

Post by mywittyname » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:54 PM UTC

KumaBear wrote: post #153

kenjackson wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that what Kushner wants is CNN. If they could make CBS+CNN lean conservative like Fox, they pull off a potential to swing the country via news media.

That's a shitty gamble when online media is where it is at now a days. These big media networks are dinosaurs hanging on by a thread.

The people who vote are the people also glued to 24hr news.

Plus, they already own all of the online media. The important bits, anyway.

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#169

Post by hopelite » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:55 PM UTC

dabockster wrote: post #166

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like it. $2.8bn by Warner Brothers to Netflix [1]. If the vote looks close, Paramount would be expected to raise their bid to cover that cost. [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065280/000119312525... 8.3(a)

The failed merger and similar clawback clause between Kroger and Albertsons is currently destroying a significant part of the supply chain for food in the Pacific Northwest. Grocery stores that have been open for 50-75 years - stores where whole neighborhoods and towns were built around - are closing forever, leaving those areas as food deserts. Either way, this entertainment merger is going to get ugly. Consumers ar…

I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison, groceries that sell food on one hand and a brainwashing and propaganda delivery system (see History of criminal, industry/advertiser, FBI, CIA, Pentagon, and foreign nation direct ties to the industry) masquerading as “entertainment” on the other.

You don’t have to be “harmed”, just do not pay them your money. Problem solved. If the prospect of not being “entertained” fills you with anxiety and frustration, maybe that’s something to reflect on.

Re: Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

#170

Post by bhelkey » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 10:57 PM UTC

afavour wrote: post #37

I'm curious how often tactics like this work. It is essentially asking the Warner stockholders to act against the wishes of their elected board. It seems the main thrust of the pitch is "we're friends with Trump therefore more likely to win approval" which is so deeply gross but also probably persuasive to many. Jared Kushner is involved in the Paramount bid so you know they're greasing the right wheels.

>> We are offering shareholders $17.6 billion more cash than the deal they currently have signed up with Netflix

> It seems the main thrust of the pitch is "we're friends with Trump therefore more likely to win approval"

It seems to me that the main thrust of the pitch is more money.