Ellison dodges WBD questions, but promotes Hollywood mergers
Ellison dodges WBD questions, but promotes Hollywood mergers
The Paramount Skydance CEO says more M&A activity would be good for Tinseltown.
If Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison was hoping to tamp down any talk that his company was in the market for a major acquisition on Thursday, he did not succeed. Speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles, Ellison did not explicitly confirm or deny that he was on the trail of WBD, but he did leave little doubt in the minds of listeners regarding his opinions on such transactions in general.
Key Details:
- Neither confirm or deny: Ellison did not make any explicit statements on reported interest by his company in WBD.
- No backsliding: The CEO did say that such transactions don’t have to be a detriment to the talent community.
- More is more: Ellison also stressed that to create engagement, studios needed to make more content.
Ellison sidestepped an opportunity to make an official comment on a bid by Paramount Skydance for Warner Bros. Discovery, which itself is a kind of backdoor confirmation that there is interest. Paramount’s desire to acquire WBD was first reported in September, and confirmed in new reporting this week.
But Ellison did speak more generally about mergers and acquisitions, saying that he didn’t think such combinations were necessarily a bad thing for the talent community in Hollywood. He said that Paramount approaches everything from a standpoint of doing right by the talent community, creating value for shareholders, and the best thing for “storytelling at large.”
The CEO also pointed out that it was current WBD CEO David Zaslav who said that consolidation was coming for the media industry. Zas probably wasn’t thinking along the lines of seeing his company taken over at the time he said this, but in a general sense, it is true that the writing has been on the wall for greater consolidation in media — especially streaming — for quite some time.
In saying almost nothing, Ellison’s comments spoke volumes about his intentions for WBD. In my view, there’s essentially no chance that Paramount doesn’t make a bid for WBD, and such an attempt is likely to be successful. But viewers shouldn’t fear that if such a takeover happens, Ellison will suddenly shut off the content fire hose after getting his hands on the rich collection of IP at WBD.
“You actually need more content to yield engagement,” he said on Thursday.
There are lots of steps to take and questions to answer before Paramount Skydance takes over WBD. But after Ellison’s words on Thursday, there should be little doubt remaining that Paramount is in the hunt for a major, splashy acquisition.
Will his company be the only major outlet in the hunt for Comcast? Reports indicate Netflix is probably out despite previously reported interest, but there could be a new competitor in the conversation. The New York Post reports that Comcast could enter the fray soon, though it’s not clear if the bid would come from the division that will control Peacock or NBC, or from Versant, which will soon have charge of Comcast-owned cable channels after a completed split of the company’s assets.
Comcast’s interest could be genuine, and if so, the pursuit for WBD is just heating up. It’s clear how David Ellison feels about an acquisition, but whether his billionaire father, Larry, will crack open the checkbook again to facilitate such a deal remains to be seen. The Post reports the elder Ellison is reluctant to make such a move, and son David may be seeking alternative financing options as a result.
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