It’s a fundamental business principle: When hard times hit, leaders of struggling companies feel the urge to merge with stronger rivals.
As the new year begins, Hollywood’s largest media conglomerates are hip-deep in a cycle of merger-and-acquisition mania after years of disruption in traditional TV and film, and a particularly chaotic year in 2023. But in the present climate, is getting bigger really the answer?
Ben Denzer for Variety
It’s becoming clear to many that dealmaking to bulk up on content and distribution assets is no longer the cure for the industry’s problems that it’s been since the 1990 nuptials of Time Inc. and Warner Communications; the threat to Hollywood’s old ways of making money posed by the rise of streaming platforms is too dire and too fundamental.
Yet old habits die hard. The media marketplace is once again rife with speculation about potential M&A transactions — mostly revolving around the fates of Paramount Global, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast’s NBCUniversal division. Shari Redstone’s Paramount Global is seen as having reached a grow-or-sell crossroads that has the potential to set other transactions in motion — the pinball effect when one sizable company puts the “For Sale” sign out. (For the record, neither Paramount Global nor Redstone’s National Amusements holding company has commented publicly on the matter.)
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