A billion-dollar merger is looming in the US entertainment industry. According to insiders, Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount Global are exploring a merger. Talks between the media companies are still in their early stages and it is not clear whether they will actually lead to an agreement, people familiar with the matter said.
Accordingly, David Zaslav, the head of Warner Bros. Discovery, met with Bob Bakish, his counterpart at Paramount Global, in New York on Tuesday to discuss a possible deal. He also spoke with Paramount Chairman Shari Redstone, whose family company owns a majority stake in Paramount, the owner of CBS and other television networks.
A merger of the two companies would not only bring together the two famous film and television studios, but also a number of pay TV and radio channels, including HBO and CBS. However, such a merger would likely be subject to intense scrutiny from regulators, who have already challenged numerous mergers under the Biden administration.