Is Paramount Buying Wbd? 5 Takeaways From the First Post-Merger Earnings Call

With just two months under its belt, the new Paramount executive team led by CEO David Ellison made its first Wall Street appearance on an earnings conference call Monday and laid out a vision for a $1.5 billion investment in entertainment and sports — and another $1 billion in cost savings.

Shares rose 5% in after-hours trading when the news came out.

While the call was brief, with a lot of talk of “North Stars” and promises to invest in content and infrastructure, the reality of its challenges loomed — which includes layoffs of as many as 2,000 employees. Paramount posted a third-quarter loss of $257 million, or 37 cents a share. Even adjusting for one-time items, the company lost $24 million,…