Netflix recently announced plans to acquire Warner Bros. for over $82 billion. Now, Paramount Skydance is making a hostile bid. This is hyperscale business drama at its finest, and my former colleagues at Warner Bros. are certainly on my mind. Mergers are a crazy experience for everyone involved.
Mergers are chaotic. Despite the millions or billions of dollars behind them, they are rarely well-organized affairs. They shift power overnight and turn once-predictable careers into a game of musical chairs.
While executives celebrate “synergy” and investors speculate, the people who actually do the work wake up wondering, “Do they still need me?” “Do they understand the value of what we built?” “Should I wait… or should I act?”
This is where quiet leaders face a critical moment.
The truth about big acquisitions
Let’s be honest: The acquiring company always wins. The recent news about Netflix planning to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery is a powerful example.
Netflix already has a world-class streaming platform. WBD built a world-class streaming platform too. I helped lead parts of it. But you don’t keep two tech stacks.
In this merger, some capabilities will be absorbed, especially the innovations in live streaming that WBD mastered across major global sports events. But many others will be retired.
Not because the tech isn’t great, but because Netflix already has great tech. And they will always prefer their own.
I’ve watched this movie before. When Discovery purchased Warner Bros., there was a lot of internal hype about picking the “best” technology from both companies. In truth, Warner Bros never stood a chance. Discovery was always going to favor their inventions.
I ran across many from the Warner Bros. side of the acquisition that couldn’t move forward when their tech wasn’t chosen. In some cases, it really wasn’t better, but in others it may have been. And no matter how much the Discovery leadership tried to position it, for these people it came across as Discovery telling them their baby was ugly.
And while every merger claims to deliver efficiency, the truth is that internal leaders are left to deal with the integrations, redesigning the workflows, and doing the real work. Leaders have to translate confusion into continuity or they get swept aside.
If you are a quiet leader, DO NOT WAIT.
If you are in the midst of a merger, your instinct may be to:
✓ keep your head down
✓ keep delivering
✓ wait for things to settle
Do. Not. Do. That.
The first people sidelined in a merger are the ones who quietly keep everything working. They are the ones that unfamiliar executives assume they can lose.
Quiet Leadership in Loud Moments
When uncertainty rises, loud leadership will fill the space: whether it deserves to or not. Loud leaders will assert their ideas as truths, drowning out other voices (intentionally or not). Quiet leadership must not disappear.
5 Moves Quiet Leaders Must Make During a Merger:
Connect directly with the new decision-makers
Don’t wait for someone to introduce you. Send a short, factual, confidence-driven note: “Here are the outcomes I drive and the risks I manage.”
Become the source of clarity
Synthesize decisions and next steps in writing; control the narrative by creating the narrative.
Document your impact
Create a weekly “merger snapshot”:
Wins delivered
Risks avoided
Teams unblocked
Executives remember the evidence they see.
Volunteer into the future
Ask a bold question: “Where are we going and how do I help us get there?”
Invest in your optionality
If the direction doesn’t fit your strengths:
Refresh your network
Explore external paths
Stay in motion
The merger mindset: Move with calm urgency
Quiet leadership isn’t calm instead of action; it’s calm fueling action.
The chaos of mergers is exactly the moment when your presence must be:
Clear
Direct
Intentional
The world needs leaders who stay thoughtful when everything around them is yelling.
