> With his new toy having a leverage ratio north of 6x, David Ellison has promised $6 billion in “synergies” within three years. (Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos put the figure closer to $16 billion, after examining WBD’s books.

What is it that these CEOs think they are seeing, that everyone else is missing? I can believe they have inflated egos, but they’re not totally crazy, right? My impression is that Netflix is fairly sober and results oriented, so I’m confused by the whole thing.

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bluegatty 9 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They're buying control of narrative on issues they care about; the history of media is mostly that. Newspapers were kind of invented for that reason. Our ideas of ethics in journalism are fairly modern.

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butterisgood 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Indeed Edgar Allan Poe had a thing or two to say about newspapers. https://poestories.com/quotes.php (and scroll down a bit).

> “We should bear in mind that, in general, it is the object of our newspapers rather to create a sensation — to make a point — than to further the cause of truth.”

	▲	PearlRiver 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		We as citizens are supposed to keep ourselves informed and vote on things. Very few of us can fly all over the world to see things with our own two eyes so we have to outsource this fact finding. Priests, journalists, the goddamn CIA- they all have agendas.

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coliveira 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Rich people don't buy media companies because this is the best business in the world. Quite the opposite, most media companies are mediocre or lose money. They do this because of the political clout they get with the control of these media properties.

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JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago | parent [-]

> They do this because of the political clout they get with the control of these media properties

Bezos bought the Post for clout. Ellison (and his investors) are buying Warner Brothers first and foremost to make money.

	▲	coliveira 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		As the article shows, the most probable result of buying Warner Bros will be another loss. Which won't stop more people from buying it again later.
	▲	onetokeoverthe 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[dead]

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JumpCrisscross 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> that everyone else is missing?

To be fair, sometimes they do. Musk saw genuine bloat at Twitter. I’m doubtful one can optimize that much out of WarnerBrothers. But Hollywood isn’t exactly known for being efficient.

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JeremyNT an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I mean he bought Twitter for clout / soft power, the business is mostly irrelevant.

He arguably single handedly shifted the entire Overton window in the US to the right, and got his preferred candidate elected.

It's reasonable to assume that Ellison is interested in the exact same kind of power, but over the broader culture.

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pinkmuffinere 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ya, I totally agree, given that both CEOs see some significant value here, and I trust one to be fairly calculated, I assume they’re at least partially correct. But I sincerely don’t know _what_ they think they see. If it’s just layoffs, then why doesn’t WBD see the same thing and do the layoffs themselves? If it’s IP, then why do shareholders disagree? Wtf is it, lol

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rayiner 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Can’t you replace a lot of Hollywood with AI now? What am I missing?

	▲	bandrami 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Not if you want to copyright the output
	▲	CyberDildonics 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		Prove it
	▲	onetokeoverthe 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[dead]

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readthenotes1 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There is a large history of companies with too much money (or access to borrowing) using it to buy up shiny objects. Whether it is CEO pride, greed, anger, or envy, it does not seem to matter.

	▲	raw_anon_1111 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		See sports teams.

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toomuchtodo 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Layoffs as you consolidate operations between enterprises. See Capital One laying off thousands at Discover Financial after their acquisition.

Capital One to lay off more than 1,100 in latest cuts at Discover Financial HQ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47270442 - March 2026

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alephnerd 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Succession planning.

This appears to be Larry Ellison trying to manage succession for his kids. We'll probably see a second major acquisition like this for Megan (who tends to be more progressive leaning) [edit: I was right. Megan Ellison is making moves as well now [0]]

Larry would not be able to do something similar at Oracle today (definitely in the 2000s though), as by the 2010s operational control at Oracle increasingly shifted to operators like Catz, Hurd, and Kurian. It also would have led to bad blood à la the Murdochs.

One heir cultivating the right wing (David) and the other heir cultivating the progressive wing (Megan) buys a level of political impunity for the next generation that is hard to come by.

[0] - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/megan-el...

	▲	7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]