‘A bellwether for the industry’: why Warner-Paramount talk is no surprise

Investors seemed unimpressed but analysts say even talk of a merger reflects moves to consolidate in a tough market

Barbie and Tom Cruise’s Top Gun are planning on getting hitched. Warner Bros Discovery, the Hollywood studio that brought us the Batman, Harry Potter and Barbie films, and Paramount Global, the media company behind Top Gun, Titanic and Mission: Impossible, are in merger talks that could create a $38bn (£30bn) colossus.

David Zaslav, the chief executive of Warner, and Bob Bakish, his Paramount counterpart, discussed the potential deal over hours-long lunch at the latter’s Times Square office in New York this week. The companies declined to comment, but people close to them cautioned that the talks were at an early stage and a tie-up might not happen.

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