BURBANK, Calif. — For 80 years, the Smoke House restaurant in Burbank has served as an unofficial extension of the Warner Bros. studio lot.
The historic steakhouse sits just across the street from the studio gates and has become a meeting place where executives, actors and filmmakers gather after long days on set.
Now the restaurant, along with much of Hollywood, is closely watching a massive studio merger move forward — wondering what it could mean for a region that relies so heavily on TV and film production.
Paramount Skydance has agreed to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at nearly $111 billion. The acquisition would combine two major entertainment companies and bring together a wide range of assets, including film studios, streaming services, cable networks and news divisions.
“We’re not part of the company, but we’re like brothers,” said David Rocha, general manager of the Smoke House. “When they’re busy, we’re busy.”
Rocha says it’s hard to ignore the uncertainty surrounding the deal. He estimates that more than a quarter of the restaurant’s revenue comes from Warner Bros. employees and visitors.
The merger has raised broader questions across the entertainment industry about how the new company might operate.
Entertainment lawyer Jonathan Handel said major corporate mergers often sell efficiency and collaboration, but those changes frequently come with heavy job losses.
“When companies talk about synergy and costs savings, what that really means is layoffs,” Handell said. “Employment is the largest cost for these companies.”
With fewer employees on payroll, the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. company is expected to lean heavily into emerging technology like artificial intelligence.
“The Ellisons are tech bros at heart,” he said, referring to Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison and his father Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder backing the deal. “It would be foolish to assume that they are not going to make the most assertive, aggressive use of AI that they can.”
Before the acquisition can move forward, regulators must sign off. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has raised potential antitrust concerns and said the transaction will face a thorough review, potentially with the support of other state AGs.
Federal officials must also sign off on the merger. President Donald Trump has publicly expressed support for the Ellison family and the proposed sale.
Paramount Skydance executives, including Ellison, say they are confident regulators will ultimately approve the merger following meetings with the Trump cabinet and state-level AGs in different states.
“The reality of this is there is nothing in this transaction that trips anything that would create cause for concern,” Ellison told CNBC earlier this month.
The deal is expected to close within the next 6 to 18 months.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source baynews9.com ’
