Paramount Skydance’s David Ellison has prevailed in his dogged pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery: He’s won the deal. Now comes the hard part: making the economics of the combined company work, given an extremely high debt load of the combined media company.
\n\nFollowing the announcement of Paramount’s settlement with the 12 Democratic state attorneys general resolving their antitrust case to block the WBD deal, the merger is set to close with about two weeks, Ellison wrote in a staff memo Monday.
\n\nThe outcome is “a clear positive for the pro-forma PSKY + WBD,” Morgan Stanley analysts Sean Diffley and Daniel Duran said in a Sept. 22 research note, especially in the context of “the wide range of potential outcomes and fears in the marketplace.” Under the terms of the settlement, Paramount is not being forced to make any divestitures out of the gate, with minimal “behavioral commitments” — including the release of at least 30 films per year by Paramount-Warner Bros. with a 45-day theatrical window, something Ellison had already promised.
\n\nThey specifically highlighted its leg up in the streaming wars: The combination of HBO Max and Paramount+ puts it on a path to achieve more than 240 million subscribers…
Original source: https://variety.com/