All eyes are on Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Pictures after the CEOs of each company met Tuesday in New York City to explore a possible merger. According to Axios, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav met with Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish and Shari Redstone, who owns Paramount’s parent company, about striking a deal to create a new media titan through their combined forces.
What’s interesting is that currently, WBD’s market value sits at around $US29 billion and Paramount’s at about $US10 billion, making the merger seem like a competitive move between two legacy studios to compete with Disney. Axios noted that Zaslav and Bakish’s meeting “lasted several hours” at Paramount’s headquarters in Times Square. The two were said to have laid out how both companies could merge their film studios and streaming services to compete with rival companies like Disney and Netflix.
The source goes on to say that it’s “unclear whether WBD would buy Paramount Global or its parent company, National Amusements Inc. (NAI),” but both options are on the table. Warner Bros. Discovery have seemingly hired bankers to explore the deal. Talk about a way to end the tumultuous year at some of the biggest film studios in Hollywood.
io9 has reached out to both Warner Bros. and Paramount for a response to Axios’ report; a Warner Bros. spokesperson declined to comment. We’ll update this post when and if we hear more.
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