The WB/Discovery Merger

There's been a lot happening over on HBO Max since the merger of WB & Discovery and David Zaslav's coming into power.  Besides the nearly completed Batgirl and Scoob! sequel getting cancelled despite their near completion, the company has been gutting its animation/kids content divisions.  Over 36 shows, including critical favorites such as Infinity Train and Close Enough, have been completely wiped from the platform and any mention or posts of these shows has also been wiped from any of HBO Max's social media.  Many of these shows are not (legally) available anywhere else on streaming or physical media. What's worst is that it seems that those behind the creation of these shows were informed of their show's removal at the same time as the general public.  Many of the creators have gone to social media to express their disdain, including Infinity Train's creator Owen Dennis, who claims that the removal of these owned properties are more so to strip the workers of their royalties, all the while Zaslav is making at least $246M a year.  Execs at WB/Discovery have also eliminated over 200 classic episodes of Sesame Street and are no longer moving forward with the Bruce Timm/Matt Reeves extended Batman universe.

HBO Max itself is slated to be no more by next summer, with its replacement being some new combination with Discovery+.  It's also being reported that besides burning these bridges with creatives, WB Discovery has lost $5.5 million in market cap this past month.

Has anyone else been following the drama that's been unfolding? Personally, I hate this.  Artists getting screwed out of their royalties and media becoming "lost" is a travesty.  Content wise HBO Max was my favorite of all the streaming services, but seeing Zaslav (known to dislike "scripted content") come in and destroy it is such a bummer.