#merger

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, reassured employees in a company town hall that the upcoming merger with Netflix is expected to bring only minimal layoffs. He said Netflix wants to retain most WBD staff since the streamer needs added personnel to support its operations. Zaslav acknowledged that mergers naturally create anxiety, but he emphasized that this pairing feels like a good match for both sides. The information comes from internal remarks reported by TheWrap, based on what staff were told in the meeting.

https://www.thewrap.com/david-zaslav-layoffs-minimal-warner-bros-discovery-netflix-deal/

Paramount was poised to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. What went wrong
By Meg James and Stacy Perman
Dec. 6, 2025

Paramount’s 30 dollars per share bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, backed by Larry Ellison, collapsed Friday when Netflix swept in with a competing 82.7 billion dollar deal. Analysts and auction insiders told The Times that several issues complicated Paramount’s effort, including low initial offers and overconfidence. Paramount is accusing Warner Bros. Discovery of rigging the auction and is expected to press regulators to block the Netflix deal as anti competitive.

Source: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-12-06/paramount-larry-ellison-hollywood-warner-bros-netflix-skydance-sarandos

Ellison, the Oracle founder, had recently financed his son David’s 8 billion dollar acquisition of Paramount Pictures. The Ellison family then moved to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for at least 60 billion dollars. With substantial financial backing and support from President Trump, many Wall Street analysts and Hollywood insiders assumed Paramount would win.

But Netflix shocked the industry by announcing its own blockbuster agreement to acquire the Burbank studio, HBO Max and HBO for 82.7 billion dollars. The Warner board judged Netflix’s 27.75 dollars per share offer, which excluded CNN and other basic cable channels, a better deal for shareholders. It was a rare defeat for Ellison and a victory for Netflix’s co CEO Ted Sarandos.

Auction insiders said Paramount’s first major misstep was submitting low ball bids. By mid October, Paramount had made three unsolicited offers, starting at 19 dollars a share. The Warner board unanimously rejected them as too low. Some Warner executives were irritated, feeling the Ellisons had swept into Hollywood and were trying to exploit the studio’s weakened state.

Paramount’s bid relied on Ellison’s pledge of 30 billion dollars in Oracle stock, according to a person familiar with the matter. As bidding escalated, Paramount sought additional capital from Apollo Global Management. When Warner opened the process to other suitors in late October, Netflix and Comcast joined. Paramount underestimated Netflix, in part because a senior Netflix executive had downplayed interest in public.

Analysts speculated that Netflix had been playing possum. One auction insider said Paramount acted as if it were the only serious contender. Meanwhile, David Ellison and RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale were trying to secure funding from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. Their outreach to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates raised concerns among Warner board members about the stability of the Paramount offer. The fall of Oracle stock during broader market concerns about an AI bubble further complicated Paramount’s position.

Ellison’s ties to Trump also generated concern in Hollywood. Oracle is among the US investors expected to take a majority stake in TikTok’s US business after its separation from ByteDance, a move influenced by Trump. Paramount’s recent 16 million dollar settlement of Trump’s lawsuit against CBS over an edited 60 Minutes interview, its cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show due to losses, and David Ellison’s hiring of Bari Weiss to run CBS News all contributed to perceptions of political alignment. Trump publicly praised the Ellisons and expressed support for the Paramount bid.

Paramount’s agreement to distribute Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 4 just after renewed pressure from Trump added fuel to that perception. Some observers said the once advantageous relationship with the administration began to seem less appealing to potential regulators and international partners.

A White House meeting last month addressed Paramount’s bid and concerns about Netflix. During the same week, David Ellison attended a White House dinner for Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. A Guardian report, citing anonymous sources, claimed White House officials had informally discussed with Larry Ellison a list of CNN anchors Trump disliked and wanted removed if Paramount won the auction. That report raised alarms among foreign regulators.

People close to Paramount argued that CEO David Zaslav and board member emeritus John Malone were biased against the Ellisons and that Zaslav wanted to maintain his status as a Hollywood mogul. Paramount ultimately submitted six offers, including a final 30 dollars per share proposal, but none matched Netflix’s bid.

According to those familiar with the process, Paramount executives realized last Monday that they had been beaten. Two days later, the company accused Warner Bros. Discovery of abandoning any semblance of a fair auction process. Netflix said Friday that its deal will take 12 to 18 months to secure regulatory approval. Approval is far from guaranteed due to antitrust concerns about Netflix’s market strength.

Warner Bros. Discovery now faces a legal fight over its handling of the auction.

Larry Ellison, often remembered in Hollywood for a cameo in Iron Man 2 in which Tony Stark calls him the Oracle of Oracle, has long funded the film careers of his children David and Megan. Despite his age, the 81 year old Ellison remains deeply involved at Oracle as executive chairman and chief technology officer.

Ellison grew up in a modest South Side Chicago apartment, raised by relatives after his teenage mother gave him up. After dropping out of the University of Chicago, he moved to California, worked various programming jobs and helped develop early database systems at Ampex. Those ideas eventually became the core of Oracle, which he co founded in 1977 with 1,200 dollars and concepts inspired by an IBM research paper. Oracle grew rapidly, won its first contract with the CIA, went public in 1986 and propelled Ellison to billionaire status by 1993.

Ellison developed a reputation for flamboyance and intensity. He collected super yachts, fighter jets, mansions and samurai swords, and won the America’s Cup twice. He was unafraid of confrontation, once hiring investigators to comb through Microsoft’s trash during the company’s antitrust trial, calling it his civic duty.

At Oracle, Ellison pushed into cloud computing, healthcare and AI, partnering with Nvidia, Meta and xAI.

Hollywood, however, was shaped by his children. With large trusts of Oracle and NetSuite stock, both entered the film business. Megan founded Annapurna, known for films like Zero Dark Thirty and Her. David tried acting and produced the unsuccessful 2006 film Flyboys before launching Skydance Media, producing major hits including Top G-n Maverick, Star Trek and Grace and Frankie and expanding into animation, sports and gaming.

Larry Ellison stepped in when needed, including restructuring Annapurna in 2018 after heavy losses. He financed David’s 8 billion dollar deal to buy Paramount and holds nearly 78 percent of the new company’s stock. The family announced plans to rejuvenate Paramount through technology investments and franchise building around Top G-n, Star Trek and Yellowstone.

They also made clear they are not walking away from Warner Bros. Discovery. Those who know Ellison say he should not be underestimated. History shows he is always ready for a fight.

Heard it here first. Is a merger really in the works between BNY and _ in 2026?

So another failed venture by ATT gets sold to Discovery for $43billion. Today, Netflix buys WB for $82billion. ATT must be the worst negotiators ever.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/04/media/netflix-paramount-wbd-bidding-war-warner-bros-discovery

What is the news on staff reductions as the MRC/DNOW merger progresses?

"Additionally, because Leggett & Platt's business is complementary to Somnigroup's
businesses, we would expect to not only retain most of Leggett & Platt's management team and employees, whose knowledge, experience and talent would be invaluable to the
Somnigroup organization, but also provide them future career opportunities in the broader Somnigroup organization. We also expect to retain a significant presence in Carthage."

Sure.

Layoffs confirmed by a senior leader at my plant that has majority experience in the corporate offices. They said it will impact a lot of corporate positions & may also impact some field roles. They said it’ll happen end of this week early next so brace yourselves! They’re blaming it on the merge but we all know they’re out sourcing roles to Mexico etc

Came across this while scrolling through our board, checking for updates. OP: @b5+1kbdhf394

"The decision to step away from a stock in the middle of a transformational transaction can be as revealing as a new stake. Frontier is deep into its pending acquisition by Verizon, a deal that was announced more than a year ago and aims to accelerate fiber rollout and reshape the company’s competitive position. Yet even with record operational momentum—including 25% year-over-year consumer fiber broadband revenue growth and 133,000 quarterly fiber net adds—the uncertainty surrounding regulatory approval, capital intensity, and integration risk may be prompting some managers to de-risk exposure."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investor-exits-3-4-million-172230032.html

• Omnicom's $9 billion merger with Interpublic Group will result in about 4,000 job cuts.
• The merger creates the world's largest advertising agency group with $25 billion in revenue.
• Omnicom will retire legacy brands and restructure into new divisions to streamline operations.

https://www.businessinsider.com/omnicom-ipg-advertising-merger-to-result-in-4000-layoffs-2025-12?op=1

It’s common knowledge amongst the Leadership that Federal approval for the Frontier deal had a condition attached for Verizon to get staff back into the office…Hammocks video was a smokescreen. It has nothing to do with collaboration and everything to do with keeping the US Government on side

How many layoffs can we expect as the result of the AkzoNobel merger? I know some are thinking this will not affect Axalta much but I'm worried. I don't know of many major mergers that were done without at least some cuts on both side, and usually it's much more than "some."

Be Aware -

10,000+ Verizon Layoffs coming in 2026 due to the Frontier merger.

It is (not) done, by far.

10,000+ Verizon Layoffs coming in 2026 due to the Frontier merger.

It is (not) done, by far.

Without going into too much detail, it’s been a disappointing journey. To come so far after a highly anticipated merger and to be here. Toxicity. Low morale. Same office politics. And a tough market.

So we have all been stressed but made it thru .I am feeling better since my director told me I should be ok the next round of rifs after the frontier merger.He said we all may have to pick up the extra slack but it will show we are value.

For the ones who stayed and potentially out of a job come the frontier merger / annual riffed employees. We should boycott strike duty so they have no coverage and join a union.

Man will there ever be piece .I figured so was safe but heard from above that it’s not done.I hope I survive the next round

Do you think there will be layoffs due to different marketing groups merging and/or consolidating?

There will be more layoffs here.

A California-based data company is trimming nearly a dozen Travis County positions after it was acquired recently by an Austin private equity firm.

Couchbase Inc. is eliminating 11 of an estimated 40 positions at the company’s Austin offices at 9050 N. Capital of Texas Highway, according to a notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission. Most of the employees affected are part of the company’s sales and corporate teams.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/couchbase-laying-off-11-austin-190418814.html

Does anyone else plan to volunteer for the next RIF? My manager said she firmly believes there will be another RIF after the Frontier merger and that it will impact our department. I have been unhappy in my role for the last year or so (largely due to changes that happened since the VSP). Can we volunteer for the next RIF? Or does that not carry any weight?

How does an org claim to take the best of both pre-merged orgs, yet cut the best things/benefits each org offered?

• 401k- cut/decreased matching
• momentum-cut/decreaded
  1ESPP (created post merger- restricted offering periods)
• birthdays off-cut/eliminated
• WFH (even if hired remote or had the ability to WFH pre-covid- cut/eliminated)
• TPA award recipients (best of best teammates- demoted, RIF, or cut, less than 1 year after being rewarded)
• Insurance business (a cash cow- sold and cut)
• Best talent wealth of knowledge (encourage to take early retirement)
• End to end credit delivery system (cut to originate, book, and service loans on 17 different systems that DONT talk to each other or archive records- it’s on a shared drive)
• consistent doc repository systems (eliminated for shared drives)
• Career progression (non-existent, just make project teams, and loan teammates to departments to avoid creating needed positions, yup do 6 jobs for the price of one)

I see a pattern of gaslighting, deception, lack of accountability. Just go back to the drawing board, admit this is a failed merger, and build it up. Stop putting a bandaid on a fatal g-nshot wound.

We won’t cut our way into a higher stock price and teammate satisfaction.

Are we still at war with each other? Every where I look it’s people saying “this never happened until the merger” or “sprint was/is better and we’re changing this company”

Did anyone catch the question during the AMA event where SM admitted they were seriously considering combining Ops Risk and Compliance? She said she thought it was a good idea and that our peer banks have already done it... Is Compliance done for??

**I just got the confirmation that VEC MDU will be reduced from 7 client executives “Fios/5G” to 4 client executives per Team…..YOU HEARD IT FIRST** ask your AD/Sr.Directors to be transparent this time, apparently its to help with the transition of the frontier merger happening in less than 4 months., hopefully they wont be clueless and dont know cause it seems the employees know more than the leaders these days.

Seems like this merger is only to satisfy Vena's ego. He knows he has to fire people and he is still making lifetime employment deals with the unions. He just wants to get this merger through to be recognized as "the first person who connected both coasts with rail". He will then quit like Boris Johnson had to quit after Brexit. He will be known, but at what cost?

Does this look OK? If we buy PayPal and bring all those people in, those numbers may actually go up.

I see where the BRC union has signed the post merger job agreement. A question for anyone reading this that is an official in the union, what do these agreements say? What wording is there in these agreements that makes it worthwhile? Are the members voting on this? None of this is making sense. It seems strange to me someone that has cut about 10,000 jobs is interested in anybody’s job security.

I continue to hear rumors about an upcoming future layoffs AND a merger. I'm hearing that the VSP and additional layoffs are being done to position us well for a merger (GuideWell???).

Skyworks has created a new severance plan for top executives.
It was approved on November 11, 2025 and filed on November 14, 2025.

This plan only covers Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents who report directly to the CEO.
Directors, managers, engineers, and all non-executive employees are not included.

If a VP or SVP is laid off in normal times, they receive:
• One year of base salary
• One year of company-paid medical insurance
• A partial bonus they have already earned
• Some RSUs that would have vested within the next 12 months

If a VP or SVP is laid off after a merger or company sale, they receive:
• One and a half times their base salary
• One and a half times their target bonus
• Eighteen months of company-paid medical insurance
• Full vesting of all RSUs
• Extra time to exercise stock options

To receive these benefits, they must sign a legal release and follow non-compete rules.

This plan gives very strong protection to VP and SVP executives.
Regular employees do not receive these benefits.

Heard from a buddy in M&A that this is being discussed.

Don't ask "how do they expect [any function] to continue?". They don't. Verizon will look completely different very quickly and your job, if you still have one, is going to change. Whether it's a sale, merger, or complete dismantling, the old phone company is no more.

Will Repsol decision to merge with an unreputable company like APA Apache be a good or bad decision? Will it create or destroy jobs?

This 15000 is only the 1st round of layoffs mostly lower management.The next round in new year will be upper management levels .Its real and happening if you survive this round done get complacent.You need to start preparing getting situated financially mentally and looking for potential jobs.This does not end well for a huge majority of management levels especially once the frontier merger finalizes

What is Charter's retirement age and years of service is needed to retire? Also, does Charter offers subsidized health insurance in retirement? With the merger, I'm sure this policy will change to either Cox's terms or stay as Charter after the merger. Hopefully people can hold on to receive those retirement benefits.

That is what chatGPT told me. Ansys never had a mass layoff but Synopsys did a few times in the last a few year.

The merge was good initially if you sold all of your Stocks a few days after the merge. Otherwise, you lost 30% minimal.

... is Ajei. He and 5 generations of his offspring are good now. Everyone else suffers.