from the nice-work-if-you-can-get-it dept
I’ve written extensively about the AOL->AT&T->Time Warner->Discovery mergers because they perfectly encapsulate the pointless, destructive incompetence at the heart of modern media consolidation and the cannibalistic nature of Wall Street’s obsession with illusory quarterly growth propped up by smoke, mirrors, and complex accounting.
Sence the original AOL Time Warner merger in 2001, an endless wave of mergers promised innovative “synergies,” but instead resulted in more than 50,000 layoffs,shittier products, higher prices, the death of well-loved brands and IPs, decades of chaos, a decline in quality journalism, and a bottomless well of problems.
At the heart of this enshittification (at least the more recent mergers involving AT&T and Discovery) has sat Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav. Like the AT&T executives before him, Zaslav has faced zero accountability for this chaos and has been repeatedly rewarded with massive compensation packages that do not reflect his competency.
With Netflix and Paramount (CBS) now vying for the remnants of Warner Brothers’ assets, Zaslav stands to cash out with a golden parachute.
Worth a look