Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros

They tilt like everyone else - maybe the chaos and mayhem behind the last few years of this industry mean the old guard is finally failing, and we'll see meaningful copyright reform and sanity in our lifetime.

> and we'll see meaningful copyright reform

Are you betting on the content conglomerate bidding tens of billions, or the nepo baby LBO shop wearing the corpse of a movie studio as a salmon hat to spur copyright reform?

> we'll see meaningful copyright reform and sanity in our lifetime.

I think there is a better chance of the state collapsing than there is of seeing meaningful IP reform

  we'll see meaningful copyright reform and sanity in our lifetime.

That seems wildly naive... gestures broadly at world

The state collapsing might effectively be copyright reform at the same time though so there's that?

The rest of the world is the one thing that gives me hope in this regard, really.

It feels like year by year, Asia, even China, is becoming more and more culturally relevant. Western media is just too damn stagnant.

Hollywood used to be known as possibly the most important cultural powerhouse history has seen. It might still be that, but it certainly doesn't feel like it anymore.

Or maybe I'm just getting old.

> year by year, Asia, even China, is becoming more and more culturally relevant

And powerful export sectors.

Paramount is dead?

> Paramount is dead?

Paramount broke its tradition of barely treading water [1] in 2023 by booking multibillion cable losses [2] before being acquired in a de facto LBO [3] at half the price it traded at in 2005 [4]. (90% off its 2021 peak, though that may have been meme-y.)

Paramount Skydance–the one bidding for Warner–has $15bn of debt on $600mm operating cash flow supporting $15bn of equity trading above book value while still posting losses [5].

It's not dead. But it's at least necrotic.

[1] https://tradingeconomics.com/cbs:us:net-income

[2] https://www.filmtake.com/distribution/paramounts-financial-t...

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Skydance

[4] https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/para/history/

[5] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/PSKY/key-statistics/

How does one learn to think about companies buying each other. It’s counterintuitive to me for an entity with stock to buy stock in another entity which could itself own stock in the first.

The way you write it I can’t see why WB would be allowed to sell itself when it makes the most sense for Patamount to go bankrupt some time from now and be split up amongst US media; Netflix/HBO/Disney/Peacock

You're missing the key part. The Paramount deal includes billions in Saudi money funneled through the President's son in law.

China rising should not comfort anyone except Xi. They are all about raw power.

I'm hoping that they're sufficiently absurd in their mere existence to spur questions among the electorate. "Hey, that looks weird, and not right. Maybe we should fix that!"

Yeah, I know, way too optimistic.

What matters is if paramount can pony up enough money to buy. Stores don't reject your cash even if you are debt.

We're more likely to get government by "honest AI" than for that to happen.

Based on what culture exactly? Can you name a single Chinese worldwide hit movie or TV show from the last 12 months?

I can think of only Korean Squid Game and a few Japanese anime shows that are somewhat successful.

Do Chinese movies even get distributed into places like India, Africa, South America as US produced stuff does?

Ne Zha 2 was huge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne_Zha_2

  Like its predecessor, the film received highly positive reviews from critics, and achieved even greater commercial success at a gross of $2.2 billion worldwide against a production budget of US$80 million.

  Ne Zha 2 broke numerous box office records inside and outside China, including becoming the highest-grossing film in a single box office territory, the highest-grossing animated film, being the first adult animated film in this position, the highest-grossing non-English language film and the first animated film in history to cross the $2 billion mark, as well as being the highest-selling animated film based on ticket sales.

  It also ranks as the highest-grossing film of 2025 and the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time.

and that immediately sprang to mind for a 60+ Australian english speaking mathematician / geophysicist not of asian descent. No Google / Bing / AI required.

Having grandchildren made it hard to avoid.

As for China in Africa:

  Global power dynamics in Africa are shifting, with China eclipsing the influence of the US and France. China has become Africa’s single largest trading partner. 

is true, but has been overstated by some to raise fear of Red Menace.

Source: https://theconversation.com/maps-showing-chinas-growing-infl...

FWiW China has been a significant employer of US mercs in Africa.

eg: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontier_Services_Group