Paramount CEO Focused on ‘Building’ and ‘Transforming’ Amid WBD M&A Rumors

The numbers$30 billion—Paramount’s anticipated whole income for 2026, led by an acceleration in DTC income with world profitability.$3 billion—Value financial savings from merger with Skydance, up from an estimated $2 billion.-12%—Advert income declined to $1.465 billion.600—Variety of staff who took a voluntary severance package deal after being “unable or unwilling to return to the workplace full time,” which is able to start in January 2026. The watercooler talkParamount Skydance executives have been tight-lipped about potential Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition rumors on the firm’s first post-merger earnings name on Monday. Nonetheless, the corporate’s CEO, David Ellison, famous that there are “no must-haves” on the subject of mergers and acquisitions. He added, “At first, we’re centered on what we’re constructing at Paramount and remodeling the corporate.”Ellison additionally pointed to the corporate’s North Star priorities, which it recognized in an earnings letter. These embrace investing in progress companies anchored by artistic engines and storytelling; scaling direct-to-consumer enterprise globally; and driving effectivity enterprise-wide with a concentrate on long-term free money move technology.“Because it pertains to M&A, the whole lot for us goes to tie again to does it speed up these three core ideas,” Ellison mentioned.The CEO’s firm has already made a number of unsuccessful bids for Warner Bros. Discovery. Just lately, WBD introduced it had curiosity from “a number of events,” and Comcast and Netflix secured banks to discover potential bids.The important thing quote“We’re lucky that we have now the steadiness sheet to have the ability to be opportunistic after we suppose that M&A will speed up our objectives, however we’re additionally long-term, disciplined owner-operators. So from that standpoint, we’ll at all times method issues by means of the lens of, ‘How will we maximize worth for shareholders?’”—David Ellison, CEO, Paramount Skydance