WBD Staffers Raise Upfront Glass As Yet Another Corporate Merger Looms
Warner Bros. Discovery’s lunch at the Food Network Kitchen after its upfront pitch to advertisers has become “an annual ritual,” in the words of Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell.
This year’s edition, however, unfolded in the shadow of the pending $110 billion acquisition of WBD by David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance. The industry-altering deal, which is due to close by September 30 barring an 11th-hour legal challenge, gave the event an undeniably valedictory feel. “Welcome to the Last Supper,” one waggish WBD staffer joked as guests arrived.
M&A deals are due to put assets like the Turner networks, HBO and Warner Bros. in the hands of a fourth corporate parent in eight years, earned a couple of mentions (direct or otherwise) during the company’s presentation. Co-head of sales Bobby Voltaggio got off the best line by any exec at the upfronts when he said he wanted to address “the Ellison – I mean, the elephant in the room.” Leslie Jones, plugging her new HGTV series Roast My Rental, rattled off the names of a few of the two dozen cable networks on the roster (which ballooned after the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery). Speaking for many in the audience, she wondered aloud, “How many channels y’all got?!”
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