David Ellison Holds First Warner Bros. Exec Meeting After ‘Turbulent’ Bidding Process
Following Paramount’s victory in the “turbulent” bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, soon-to-be-owner David Ellison headed to the Warner Bros. Lot on Tuesday for his first meeting with WBD executives.
On Tuesday, Ellison visited the Steven J. Ross Theatre at the Warner Bros. Lot for a meeting with 150 members of Warner Bros. Discovery’s senior leadership, an attendee of the meeting told TheWrap.
Those in attendance include motion picture heads Pamela Abdy and Mike De Luca, Warner Bros. TV Group boss Channing Dungey, HBO CEO Casey Bloys, streaming boss JB Perrette, as well as DC Studios co-head Peter Safran. Additionally, about 300 staffers attended virtually both in the U.S. and internationally.
After Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav introduced Ellison, the meeting kicked off with Ellison addressing the deal, which he admitted was “a turbulent process” that is now in the rearview mirror. “I know the bidding process has been turbulent, but that’s all behind us now,” he said.
The meeting then moved into a Q&A moderated by Warner Bros. Discovery communications head Robert Gibbs, which touched on everything from layoffs — Ellison declined to provide an estimate for layoffs — to CNN, which Ellison said would remain independent.
Following the meeting, Ellison met with Bloys, who heads up HBO, directly after. During the larger meeting, Ellison had applauded HBO as the “gold standard” in television.
The rendezvous come less than two weeks after Netflix bowed out of the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery after failing to match Paramount’s raised bid of $31 per share. Since then, the industry has been bracing for the impact of what the acquisition could mean, especially given the fallout and layoffs that resulted from the Paramount-Skydance merger.
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