Hi Peaceniks! A special BREAKING NEWS edition today.

Let’s all stop pretending that David Zaslav or the WBD board gives any shits about their shareholders, employees, or consumers. They do not.

Last week, I broke down the core motivations of Big Media C-Suites, as they make obviously terrible decisions that’ve destroyed Mainstream Media:

Greed and Ego.

This week, the power elite of the Big Media Industrial Complex have done everything possible to prove my thesis.

SEE: Warner Bros. Discovery. The merger that created WBD (aka Disco Bros) was based on ZERO strategy. It was driven (exclusively) by lawyers and bankers in Zaslav and Malone’s ears, telling them what big deals it would make them and HOW MUCH money it would make them.

SEE: Nepo Prince Ellison’s silly bid to buy WBD. The WBD merger should be enough of a cautionary tale to warn off this BIGGER version of the same SHITTY concept. But Mr. Silver Spoon and Daddy Oligarch ONLY see the power it buys them.

SEE: The public, moronic pissing match between Trump’s Nepo Pawn (Ellison) and the King of Failing Up (Zas) over the WBD bidding process - with Larry’s Kid (who’s ONLY even in this conversation bc of his last name and who enjoys the OBVIOUSLY illegal backing of a corrupt president) OPENLY WHINING about “fairness.”

This from a brat who fired Colbert and bribed a sitting POTUS to get his first deal done and is now taking cash from dudes who literally murdered and chopped up an American journalist, to finance this New Deal.

SEE: Zaslav choosing Netflix as the “winner” - despite overt, vocal, and rhetorically violent warnings from congress, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the California Department of Justice that they would vigorously oppose the combo of Netflix and WBD - because this deal will make Zas (and Malone) the most bank.

WATCH: The tornado of bullshit that is about to ensue - for at least a year - as a deal for WBD does, does not, does, does not, then maybe does (but in the end might not) come to fruition...

While thousands of filmmakers, artists and employees twist in the motherfucking wind.

THE FACTS:

🪩 The Paramount bid makes most sense for shareholders. It’s the only deal for the ENTIRE enterprise. Yet it breaks every anti-trust law ever made.

🪩 The Netflix deal is best for consumers. It’ll allow us to get both HBO Max and Netflix, without having to pay for both. BUT... the deal also strands WBD’s STILL PROFITABLE linear TV assets in the Sea of Stupidity, alongside Versant Media. It IS also wholly unlikely to get approved.

🪩 To clarify: To be clear, IF (a BIG if) this deals goes through: Netflix is paying a 34% premium for Warner Bros. Discovery‘s CURRENT price - FOR JUST HALF of the company.

Before this process started, all of WBD was worth just $25 billion. In other words: Netflix is paying $72 billion for a $31 billion asset that was worth ONLY $12.5 billion just two months ago. Congratulations I guess?

🪩 The Comcast offer for WBD is just a dumb idea from a company entirely out of ideas.

🪩 NONE of these will happen for a LONG time. Whomsoever “wins” the bidding process will face congress, Attorneys General, the historically corrupt Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, EU legislators, and countless other regulatory and legal hurdles before they get anywhere near to closing any kind of deal.

🪩 Meanwhile the lawyers and bankers print money.

We just dropped a SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS edition of The Media Odyssey Podcast where Marion Ranchet and me break down all the breaking tea.

WATCH OR LISTEN HERE.

Grab some 🍿 and fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be an epic shit-show of Ego & Greed.

Enjoy your weekend!

ESHAP