Warner Bros Discovery is no longer looking at a merger with Paramount. Reports suggests that talks ended after several months of mulling a merger. Warner Bros Discovery and Paramount+ both have considerable debts of $40 billion and $14 billion respectively. They have made heavy investments in online video services and have managed to acquire 98 million and 67 million subscribers respectively. Yet they trail behind Netflix with over 260 million worldwide and Disney+ with 111 million and a further 38 million through Hotstar.
There were reports at the end of 2023 that WBD and Paramount were discussing a possible merger, but it seems that went no further.
Meanwhile there have been reports of an offer by Skydance Media to acquire Paramount. Skydance is a production company founded by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, who has an estimated fortune worth $130 billion.
Comcast has indicated that it is not interested in acquiring any Paramount Global assets but would consider commercial partnerships such as bundling or merging Paramount+ with its own Peacock offering.
Paramount reported revenue of $6.7 billion for 2023 from its direct-to-consumer operation but made a loss of $1.663 billion on the business.
Bob Bakish, the chief executive of Paramount, said he expects Paramount+ to reach profitability in the United States in 2025. Yet the business is still sustained by the much larger traditional television business, which saw revenues decline by 8% last year to $20.09 billion.
Overall, Paramount made an operating profit of $384 million on annual revenue of $28.65 billion, compared to a loss of $142 million the previous year.