Paramount Skydance’s Takeover of Warner Bros. Is Bad News for Workers, Consumers and Free Expression

WASHINGTON — On Thursday, the Warner Bros. Discovery board decided to abandon its plans to sell the company to Netflix in favor of a Paramount Skydance bid. 

In addition to offering $31-per-share to purchase the massive entertainment and news conglomerate, Paramount agreed to pay a $2.8 billion breakup fee to Netflix to walk away.

After WBD initially accepted Netflix’s offer for the company earlier this year, Paramount made a series of hostile bids for the company, aided by President Trump’s expressed preference that ownership transfer to his political ally and Paramount owner David Ellison and his centibillionaire, MAGA-loving father, Larry.

Free Press Co-CEO Craig Aaron said:  

“The Netflix deal was disastrous but this new one is even worse. The idea that Paramount should be allowed to control CBS and CNN should be unthinkable, especially given their record of turning the Tiffany Network into a trash heap. The Ellisons have already promised the Trump administration that they’ll make sweeping changes to CNN given the chance, and we know what that means: firing journalists, spiking important stories, and replacing the news with empty propaganda. 

“This deal endangers our democracy by giving a family of pliant billionaires even more control of vast swaths of our news coverage, TV stations and movie studios. Allowing more mergers in the already highly concentrated movie business will harm filmmakers and industry workers when Paramount delivers on its promise to make deep cuts to please its Wall Street backers. While a few Hollywood execs and sovereign-wealth fund managers in the Middle East might get rich from this deal, thousands and thousands of American workers will lose their jobs.

“In any normal administration this merger would be a non-starter. In this one, the corruption and capitulation of the Ellison family is the main selling point. They’ve already shown a willingness to bend to Donald Trump’s will and change their coverage and personnel to please his whims. Trump wants to control the news, and his Justice Department has been largely purged of anyone who might ask too many questions of a deal like this. State attorneys generals had better wake up to the serious dangers of this deal before it’s too late.”

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