Under a Paramount-WBD merger, two struggling media giants would unite

Netflix has dropped out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), making Paramount Skydance the expected owner of WBD. A Paramount-WBD merger remains subject to regulatory approval, but it’s likely that we will see a Paramount-Skydance-Warner-Bros.-Discovery media giant.

Such a conglomerate would unite two legacy media companies that have struggled with profitability for years and have strongly invested in streaming and cable.

With Paramount inching closer to WBD ownership, let’s look at what the union implies for streaming and cable.

A tale of two struggling businesses

Over the past few years, both WBD and Paramount have seen declining revenue and struggled with profitability, as summarized in the table below, leading to WBD becoming eager for a sale and Paramount throwing mountains of money at media mergers.