The Warner Bros. Thread | Will NOT merge with Paramount...capitalism is still terrible

[Gavin Feng]

 

 

 

 

ray fisher: I know what you did last summer

 

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Gavin Feng

[lorddemaxus]

1 hour ago, Spidey Freak said:

Warner/Universal (WU? Wuni?) merger incoming?

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywoods-2021-investor-forecast-outlined-in-analyst-report

Nah, Wall Street just seems to have a big boner for a scenario like this.

[cax16]

I’m not sure this is ever going to end with Ray tbh cause I don’t think he’ll ever work for WB again so there’s no real reason to stop posting this stuff. I guess he’ll stop once he thinks he’s “won” or the action he wants is taken or he gets sued by WB. 
 

Not sure what he expects to happen to Hamada if they’re extending his contract though. 

Edited January 6, 2021 by cax16

[Madhuvan]

1 hour ago, Jamiem said:

From a US standpoint probably just sports and news the would need to be divested (likely sold to a seperate buyer) if we use the Disney-Fox deal as a guideline for future media M&A.  

Comcast and At&T are much bigger than FOX .. I don't think even Disney is on their level after merger

[Jamiem]

15 minutes ago, Madhuvan said:

Comcast and At&T are much bigger than FOX .. I don't think even Disney is on their level after merger

The proposed merger isn't between AT&T and Comcast, it's between NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia which is roughly the same size as Disney-Fox although main difference is that Warner doesn't have a broadcast tv channel, where Fox and ABC meant that Disney couldn't acquire that portion of Fox for legal/antitrust reasons. 

[Barnack]

19 minutes ago, Madhuvan said:

Comcast and At&T are much bigger than FOX .. I don't think even Disney is on their level after merger

 

2019

Comcast

Revenue: 109 billion

Asset: 263 billion

Equity: 71.5 billion

Employees: 190,000

 

AT&T

Revenue: 181.2 billion

Asset: 551 billion

Employees: 243,000

 

In 2016 21st Century Fox was about 30 billion revenues, 50 billions assets with 20,500 employees, it is a completely different scale yes.

 

That why the talk is I feel like about merging NBCUniversal with WarnerMedia and not comcast with AT&T:

 

"Our thoughts about the logical combination of NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia to give the combined companies the needed scale to compete with Disney and Netflix were reinforced by other conversations across town," Nathanson wrote about his check-in with his Hollywood contacts.

 

A big like Sony, they would merge/sell the movie-tv studio part of the company to another studio, not Sony altogether.

 

Disney

Revenue: 65 billion

asset: 201.5 billion

Employees: 223,000

 

 

Edited January 6, 2021 by Barnack

[Spidey Freak]

1 hour ago, Barnack said:

That why the talk is I feel like about merging NBCUniversal with WarnerMedia and not comcast with AT&T:

Assuming this happens in a hypothetical situation, how will it be jointly controlled by Comcast and AT&T? Any prominent examples of subsidiaries of two different parent companies merging that serve as approximate comparisons?

[Jamiem]

28 minutes ago, Spidey Freak said:

Assuming this happens in a hypothetical situation, how will it be jointly controlled by Comcast and AT&T? Any prominent examples of subsidiaries of two different parent companies merging that serve as approximate comparisons?

Closest I can think of off the top of my head in the media space is The CW (although that's just a channel not a whole company) and Hulu which at one point was just NBC and Fox (with a minority stakeholder in providence who sold in 2012, Disney bought in to Hulu around 2009 not long after the launch.) Both have had their fair share of problems due to parent companies having different views of how things should be done and not wanting to cannibalise existing parts of their business.

 

If the combined NBCU/WM could be run without outside interference from AT&T/Comcast it wouldn't likely be quite successful but that's a big if and its assuming that AT&T/Comcast don't think they have the scale which I think is likely not the case. I feel it would be more likely they would acquire a Lionsgate or MGM to grow rather than merge with one another. 

[Barnack]

9 hours ago, Spidey Freak said:

Assuming this happens in a hypothetical situation, how will it be jointly controlled by Comcast and AT&T? Any prominent examples of subsidiaries of two different parent companies merging that serve as approximate comparisons?

One selling it to the other is also a scenario (for Sony studio parts that what the talk tend to be about).

 

I think in media it will tend to be like hulu (without a good example of complete world multi faceted studios, with tv, movies, games, parks like those 2):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_18

 

ESPN is a joint venture but with Disney having 80% vs just 20% by Hearst it is probably well under majority control of Disney, unlike A&E where it is 50-50 with Disney

[jimisawesome]

12 hours ago, WittyUsername said:

Surely that would violate antitrust laws, right?

In the US we don't really enforce antitrust anymore for large cap mergers like this.  A couple of token spin offs and sales and this will get approved it was actually real but its not its some sell side shop playing fantasy M&A.  AT&T just bought WB why are they going to sell now? Comcast is investing heavily in Universal especially their themepark locations why would they spin or sell off now?  How does this merger solve any issues either have currently? Universal shoved down 10 day windows and WB shoved down day and date.  They both have inhouse streaming platforms along with cable channels.  Both have plenty of in house IP.  

[Cap]

13 hours ago, Spidey Freak said:

Warner/Universal (WU? Wuni?) merger incoming?

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywoods-2021-investor-forecast-outlined-in-analyst-report

When I said AT&T was gonna sell off WB, This was not the path that I thought they take. 

[RRA]

On 1/6/2021 at 1:27 AM, Gavin Feng said:

 

 

 

I find it fascinating that of the folks in fandom who were all for him going after Whedon and Johns, some of them are going "get over it" and aren't as enthused about him going after Hamada. It's almost like fans of a certain filmmaker who had their targets to blame for why said filmmaker's "vision" was thwarted fixate on them instead of the corporate types who might've signed the checks and made the actual decisions.  

[RRA]

On 1/6/2021 at 2:12 AM, Jamiem said:

The proposed merger isn't between AT&T and Comcast, it's between NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia which is roughly the same size as Disney-Fox although main difference is that Warner doesn't have a broadcast tv channel, where Fox and ABC meant that Disney couldn't acquire that portion of Fox for legal/antitrust reasons. 

I feel dumb. Why would AT&T sell off WarnerMedia? Are they really hurting that badly? 

[Chicago]

On 1/6/2021 at 6:27 AM, Gavin Feng said:

 

 

 

 

ray fisher: I know what you did last summer

 

 

Ray fisher is basically throwing his own career out the window

[WittyUsername]

5 hours ago, Chicago said:

Ray fisher is basically throwing his own career out the window

His career wasn’t exactly on fire to begin with, but he recently nabbed a major role for an ABC limited series, so there’s that. 

[Jamiem]

7 hours ago, RRA said:

I feel dumb. Why would AT&T sell off WarnerMedia? Are they really hurting that badly? 

In this instance it likely wouldn’t be sold off but rather spun off and then merged with NBCUniversal. Presumably AT&T and Comcast would each own 50% of that combined entity. 
 

Again I don’t think it’s happening but that is what is being proposed (and by quite a few analysts in the media space now) by particularly those that feel Netflix and/or Disney has/have already won which is certainly not true. I mean even if Disney and Netflix eventually get to 500m subs say 10 years from now what’s to stop HBO MAX from getting to 200m in the same timeframe and that would still be a very successful service in my opinion. The winner/s takes all mind frame by some has really grated on me recently.

 

Also to answer the second part yes AT&T are hurting badly as they have a bunch of Debt which is getting worse as they have to bid for some C-band spectrum which will likely cost them at anywhere from $4B to $20B+. On top of that the pandemic has hit WarnerMedia hard (just like every other media company) and HBO MAX has underperformed many people’s expectations (although they may turn that around depending on WW84 signups and then subsequent churn)

[cax16]

 

[TestPattern]

I legit can't fathom what WB gains from not just firing Ray Fisher outright at this point.

[BeastByTheBay]

15 minutes ago, TestPattern said:

I legit can't fathom what WB gains from not just firing Ray Fisher outright at this point.

There's nothing he can be fired from if he isn't in the Flash movie

[WittyUsername]

22 minutes ago, TestPattern said:

I legit can't fathom what WB gains from not just firing Ray Fisher outright at this point.

He’s not going to be Cyborg anymore. What more is supposed to be done?