Nine employees say the $110B Warner Bros. Discovery merger and $7M daily ticking fee worry them more than Ellison's relocation threat. Trial set for March.
Alpha Score of 48 reflects weak overall profile with strong momentum, poor value, poor quality, moderate sentiment.
Reports that David Ellison is considering moving Paramount Skydance out of California have drawn media attention. Inside the company, nine employees who spoke with Business Insider said they have bigger concerns: what happens to their jobs if the $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery goes through.
A dozen states filed an antitrust case that paused the deal. The trial is scheduled for March. One employee described breathing a "small sigh of relief" when the pause hit, feeling "mostly secure" until March, they said. Still, they added that they are "trying to come up with Plan B, just in case."
A veteran streaming employee said walking away is an option for them. "It isn't for most, and there is absolutely concern," they said.
Ellison has told Paramount's leadership he is considering setting up shop in Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, or another state if California Attorney General Rob Bonta will not negotiate a settlement of the antitrust lawsuit by October, Puck News reported this week. A Paramount spokesperson pointed Business Insider to comments by chief legal officer Makan Delrahim at a Politico event on Tuesday. Delrahim said "some of the internal conversations were leaked" about Ellison's plan to leave California. He added that the company is "certainly at the point where we are considering those factors."
Analyst Rich Greenfield of LightShed Partners wrote in a Tuesday note that Ellison's decision to float moving the headquarters "reads like another deliberate pressure tactic." One New York-based Paramount staffer said they "like the aggressiveness" from Ellison, though they do not know how leaving California "would work in practice." Greenfield noted that Paramount's "power bases are centered on LA and NYC." Requiring thousands of staffers to relocate would be a huge operational task and "disruptive" to employees, he wrote.
Instead of the relocation talk, Paramount staffers who spoke to Business Insider said they are much more focused on the company's pending deal with WBD and what it could mean for their careers. "It's nice to be able to focus on what we do without the impending disruption that a merger in 2026 would have brought," a high-level advertising employee said of the merger delay.
One major financial pressure is the roughly $7 million per day fee Paramount's financial backers would owe WBD shareholders for each day the deal does not close, starting after September 30. That ticking fee, combined with the $7 billion breakup fee Paramount would owe WBD if the deal falls through, has some staffers worried about tighter financial conditions ahead. "I'm at an age where walking away is an option," the veteran streaming employee said. "But it isn't for most, and there is absolutely concern."
WBD stock page carries an Alpha Score of 42 out of 100, labeled Mixed, in the Communication Services sector. The score reflects the uncertainty around the merger's completion and the financial overhang from the ticking fee.
The antitrust trial is scheduled for March. Paramount reports quarterly earnings on Feb. 11. The ticking fee alone creates a $7 million daily incentive to close the deal, employees said.
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