Lawmakers ask Department Of Justice to re-investigate Warner Bros. Discovery merger
Several Congress members—including Senator/Avowed Ballers Fan Elizabeth Warren—have asked the DOJ to re-open its review of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger
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Even in the ugly world of multi-billion dollar corporate media mergers, the public reception to the blending of Warner Bros. and Discovery over the last year and change has been pretty damn gnarly: Between widespread layoffs, the cancellation of high-profile projects, and the general sense that content people liked is now being removed or obscured to make way for crap they don’t, nobody’s been especially happy about the merger. Now a quartet of Democrats in Congress have issued a letter to the Department Of Justice making that displeasure very formal, asking the DOJ to re-open its review of the merger.
The signatories on the letter are Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)—the latter of whom, we can only assume, is deeply concerned about what all this merger nonsense might mean for her beloved Ballers. In the letter, flagged to both Attorney General Merrick Garland and the DOJ’s antitrust division, the writers raise concerns that WBD will use their merged mass “to adopt potentially anticompetitive
practices that reduce consumer choice and harm workers in affected labor markets.”
Much of the focus in the letter is on labor issues—including extensive layoffs at CNN—but the Congress folk do take time to call out the merger’s effect on “consumer choice,” accusing WBD’s new ownership of “hollowing out an iconic American studio” and, yes, bringing up the cancellation of Batgirl. (They’re also not wild about the smooshing together of HBO Max and Discovery+, writing that, “With fewer alternatives available to consumers, there is
less competitive pressure on WBD to innovate or provide a variety of quality content.”)
The WBD merger was completed last year; at the time, the DOJ didn’t challenge the merger after a review.
30 Comments
Good.Mr. Zsasz Zaslav should be sweating for all the anti-union shit he’s pulling—and for wanting to replace Warner’s classic library with Reality TeeVee BS.
I hope this ends with Zazlav going to prison somehow.
Prison Guard: On your feet, Zazlav! It’s prison movie night!Zazlav: Free movies, eh? I guess prison’s not all that bad.Prison Guard: Our movie tonight is….Batgirl!Zazlav: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!Rod Serling, who has been standing there smoking a cigarette the whole time: This is a metaphor for something.
Rod Serling: Some say [something about something], but in some situations [something is not about that thing]. But in this case, [THIS something IS about THIS something], and at the end of everything, all we can say, is fuck Zazlav.
…in the Twilight Zone.
I wish one of the Twilight Zone revivals had done an episode where a movie director who’s careless with people’s safety gets a taste of his own medicine.
It turns out it’s Man.
Zazlav likes movies? This must be fiction!
He’s going to be hearing about Batgirl to his dying day. Good.
It’ll be mentioned in the eulogy at his closed casket funeral. There won’t be a boy in the casket, however. Once the mandrills are done with him there won’t be anything left to bury.
I call him Mr. Nibbles.
Sorta ruins The Lion King, but. I mean, why would Rafiki just let Scar’s bullshit slide when he could’ve just bitten his dick off and watched him bleed to death through jagged wound?
He let Scar slide because of all the tax cuts.
Sigh. I’d expect a more equitable and fair taxation system from an authoritarian regime run by a despotic Jeremy Irons in big cat form.
I mean, how else you gonna pay for the hyena army? And if there’s one thing all tyrants should know is that religious organisations threaten your power by vying for the role of moral and cultural centre of your regime and thus being able to turn your populace against you. You’d think Disney, of all companies, would know this.
I mean… the time for that has passed. The merger with AT&T never made any sense and shouldn’t have happened in the first place. Warner Media can’t get back to what it was at this point — at least not without being its own company, which I don’t think is even possible (though I’d love to be wrong).
The merger with AT&T never made any sense and shouldn’t have happened in the first place.This.
Is it not worth correcting a mistake, if that’s ultimately what this merger has been? I don’t understand this “time for that has passed” sentiment.
I hardly know the law, but “time has passed” can be a part of it. For example, statutes of limitation.
The merger was finalized April 2022. The statute of limitations for antitrust civil action is four years.I know politicians are not always up on certain laws but I would be surprised if four separate Congresspeople signed on to a request for an antitrust investigation that had no possibility of moving forward. Especially involving Warren, who has made a bit of a reputation for policy involving corporate accountability and who may still have political aspirations.If I had to guess, Fleur-de-lit’s response is essentially frustrated defeatism. Which is understandable but not something I think we need to just accept.
I’m neither corporate accountant nor lawyer, but my understanding is that a demerged WM would still have to deal with a huge chunk of the debt incurred during both mergers.That would make the company much more risk-averse, and all the institutional knowledge that was lost due to layoffs would remain… well… lost. It wouldn’t be the same company, and servicing/repaying the debt would still force WM to focus on cost-cutting.It’s all fucked and I don’t how how it can be unfucked, but again, I’m not an expert.
Okay? From an antitrust POV what does any of that have to do with anything? An investigation of the merger doesn’t have the health of either company as its goal. Its focus is intended to be the harm a merger might do to the user base, yes? I’ll grant that there are *some* capitalism concerns and Warren has claimed to be a genuine capitalist but I’m struggling to see why an antitrust investigation into the merger would concern itself with the companies’ bottom line.
I’m saying that the merger with AT&T shouldn’t have been allowed, and whatever remedy is taken won’t bring WM back to what it was, with or without Discovery in the picture.
And I’m saying who GAF? The health of WM is not the goal of an antitrust investigation. So no, the time for that has NOT passed.
Cool, good talk.
I’d like them to figure out just what the hell is going on with Salem’s Lot. It was pushed back twice, now has no release date, and nary a clip or a single still frame has even been released. They apparently showed a teaser reel at a comic con last summer, but that’s about the only proof this movie even exists.
Same goes for the completely finished, in the can and broadcast ready season four of Miracle Workers. It was announced to air on TBS on January 16, 2023 but, so far, bupkis.
Oh fuck that better get released at some point
You can break up Warner Media and Discovery, but Kabletown will just buy them both up.
Wait if they re-investigate Discovery Warner merger, shouldn’t they re-investigate Disney Fox merger too?