The Writers Guild of America, the labor union representing professional writers in the film, television, and radio industries, has said it will work with regulators to block Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ:PSKY) from buying rival media giant Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ:WBD), according to several media reports from late Thursday.
“Merger after merger in the media industry has harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth,” the labor union reportedly said in a statement.
“Combining Warner Bros. with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a disaster for writers, for consumers, and for competition,” the labor union said.
The statement comes after news that David Ellison’s Paramount was among the top suitors for WBD.
Deep-pocketed Ellison started the bid at $20, then rebuffed his offer between $22 and $24 per share. Following that, reports suggested the Paramount CEO offered $25 but was reluctant to pay more than that. WBD swiftly rejected all three offers from the company.
Due to the high takeover interest in its world-class IP, WBD’s top boss, David Zaslav, said earlier this week he is exploring strategic options for their assets but reaffirmed that the two-way split of the company is still on track.
Zaslav noted that WBD received multiple unsolicited interests for both the entire company and just its studio and streaming operations. CNBC had reported that Comcast (CMCSA) and Netflix (NFLX) were also among the parties interested in buying WBD’s assets.
“It’s no surprise that the significant value of our portfolio is receiving increased recognition by others in the market,” Zaslav had said earlier.