this Warner Bros. Discovery The board’s choice on Thursday may have made shareholders rich paramount skydanceof takeover offer Exceed NetflixYes, but it also scares many employees.

While some of them own WBD stock and may prefer Paramount’s financials Offer $31 per share Netflix $27.75 per share supplyCNBC interviewed 10 WBD employees who hold various positions in the company. The 10 people, all of whom asked not to be named for fear of potential backlash, expressed concerns about potential job losses and what would happen if Paramount and WBD eventually merged.

“It’s fair to say people are deflated by the news,” said one longtime WBD executive.

Still, California attorney general says WBD-Paramount merger ‘isn’t done yet’ Rob Bonta Said yesterday.

transaction must be obtained regulatory approvals in the United States and Europe. WBD CEO David Zaslav acknowledged at Friday’s all-hands meeting that the deal may still be blocked and expressed sympathy for those going through the painful experience of moving from Netflix to Paramount, according to people familiar with the matter.

“The deal may not get done. If it doesn’t get done, we will get $7 billion and then we can start working again,” Zaslav reportedly said. leaked audio Provided to Business Insider.

Still, some WBD employees told CNBC they hoped Netflix would acquire WBD, citing several factors.

While Paramount and WBD are in news, sports, drama movie Netflix has far fewer features than streaming TV overlapping. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has repeatedly said he plans to keep WBD alone, keeping its theatrical business separate from Netflix, while keeping HBO Max as a standalone streaming service for the foreseeable future.

Netflix’s bid also did not acquire WBD’s linear cable business. Employees of CNN, TNT Sports and the old Discovery network will remain in their jobs and forge a path as independent public companies.

Now, WBD employees are facing possible mass layoffs. Paramount executives have previously said they plan to eliminateRepeat operation“In back office, finance, corporate, legal, technology, infrastructure, etc.,” Chief Strategy Officer Andy Gordon said. Both WBD and Paramount have cut thousands of jobs in recent years.

There are also questions about culture and leadership. Mark Thompson currently runs CNN, while Bari Weiss is editor-in-chief of CBS News and is likely to add CNN to her remit.

wall street journal December report Paramount CEO David Ellison promises president Donald Trump If he gains control of CNN, he will make sweeping changes to CNN. Three CNN employees who spoke to CNBC said there was widespread concern among their colleagues that Weiss would make significant changes to the cable network’s anchors and tone.

“Despite all the speculation you read in this process, I advise you not to jump to conclusions about the future until we know more,” Thompson said. wrote in the memo Thursday for employees.

Brian Stelter, CNN Media Correspondent famous CNN “is a hugely profitable business and any owner would be foolish to put it at risk.”

On the entertainment side, WBD staff are concerned that there may be too many well-known chefs in the kitchen, which could hinder creativity and innovation in film and television.

One WBD executive noted that Paramount President Jeff Shell, Direct to Consumer Chairman Cindy Holland and Television Chairman George Cheeks are all accustomed to serving as senior leaders in their organizations. Schell was the former CEO of NBCUniversal. Cheeks served as co-CEO of Paramount prior to its merger with Skydance. Holland is a Netflix executive where she has worked for 18 years.

How that combination will fit in with WBD’s entertainment leadership team is an open question and could lead to a culture clash.

TNT Sports, run by Luis Silberwasser, has largely steered WBD toward younger viewers through its programming decisions and investments, including Bleacher Report and House of Excellence. CBS Sports, meanwhile, is driven by audience demographics who watch CBS and has historically catered to older viewers. This could lead to a culture clash, or the departments could mesh well together as complementary assets.

While Silberwasser must work with CBS Sports President David Berson to deal with staff duplication, the athletics department, like other departments, has some reason for optimism as WBD and CBS have partnered for years on March Madness, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. This gives the units a level of familiarity with each other.

WBD also lost NBA Rights last season. Combined with CBS’ strong sports rights portfolio, including the NFL and Masters, WBD is once again a major player in the sports world, even as a CBS subsidiary.

Another recurring concern among employees is that the deal’s $111 billion enterprise value includes $64 billion in debt. Several employees said repaying huge debts has hampered WBD’s growth in recent years and they feared it could lead to more of the same. Two employees said it was reassuring to be part of a company as large as Netflix, with a market capitalization of more than $400 billion. Paramount Skydance has a market capitalization of just $15 billion.