One of the biggest talking points of the year has been Paramount and WBD's multibillion-dollar "megamerger," which was made official back in February.
The announcement followed the bombshell news that Netflix had decided to pull out of the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery just a couple of hours after the David Zaslav-led media company’s board declared Paramount's new bid a “superior proposal.”
Netflix has been largely silent on the matter (publicly, at least) since the deal went through, but Paramount Skydance's top lawyer is now claiming that the streaming giant is so worried about the prospect of going head-to-head with a merged Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery that they are "going all-out to try to poison regulators and other stakeholders.”
Makan Delrahim, Paramount’s chief legal officer, has alleged that Netflix is lobbying hard against the deal, while using "scorched-earth" tactics.
“We understand that as part of its broader proxy war against the Transaction, Netflix has tried to persuade the Teamsters and other stakeholders that Disney’s acquisition of Fox had a negative impact on content production and labor opportunities. Frankly, Netflix’s sky is falling narrative departs significantly from the ground-truth reality of what actually happened.”
A Netflix spokesperson told Variety the following when asked for a response:
“These claims from Paramount Skydance are absurd. We walked away from this deal months ago and remain focused on our own business, not theirs. Ultimately, it’s up to the regulators to approve this deal and determine if it is in the best interest of the industry and all concerned.”
As part of the deal, Paramount and Warner Bros. will operate as independent studios, with a commitment to 15 films from each every year, with full 45-day windows before going to premium video on-demand, with longer windows for hit films.
There were other concerns, of course, and many within the industry worry that Ellison’s close ties to the Trump administration could stifle free expression.
“Ellison scares the shit out of me,” one A-list director told Variety. “Are the movies they put out going to be catered to Trump’s taste? Are they going to start cracking down on content that they don’t find to be ideologically aligned with the right?”
Paramount also disclosed in an April FCC filing that the merged Paramount-WBD would be 49.5% owned by foreign investors, with about 38.5% of the equity in the new company owned by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
In any event, we're not expecting to see any major shakeups when it comes to the running of DC Studios, HBO Max and the like, although top executive reshuffles are always a possibility.
WB Pictures chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca are coming off a massively successful 2025 after the likes of Sinners and One Battle After Another, and there are whispers that "the executive turnstiles are about to swing once again."
“If they’re smart, they’ll keep Mike and Pam,” says one media executive. “But there’s only so much executive power to go around. Decisions will need to be made.”