A day after the stunning news of an antitrust legal settlement clearing Paramount‘s path to close a landmark merger, the company’s stock ticked up 2% amid cautious Wall Street optimism.

Shares in Paramount ended Tuesday’s trading at $10.11, down almost 25% in 2026 to date. The stock slumped late in the day Monday despite the settlement due to concerns about potential costs tied to when it manages to complete the $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount has promised to pay a “ticking fee” of about $7 million a day to WBD shareholders if the deal is still pending as of October 1.

WBD shares, which have risen due to interest from Paramount and before that Netflix and other suitors, were essentially flat for the day.

Wall Street sentiment on the merger continues to be largely positive, though there are pockets of concern in the analyst community, mainly around the tens of billions in debt the combined company will have. It also is heavily dependent on pay-TV cable networks, whose viewership and advertising revenue are in secular decline. UBS warned about the debt load as well as the reliance on linear TV.

A key number for investors is the $6 billion cost savings target Paramount has established, which will enable it to pay down debt. Whether, and how, it can hit that mark is a point of focus for analysts.

“We view the combination as a ‘show me’ story,” Michael Morris of Guggenheim Securities wrote in a note to clients. A clause in the 5-year consent decree issued by the state attorneys general calling for separate negotiations with pay-TV operators by the Paramount and WBD cable networks “constrains near-term networks synergy realization,” Morris added, “though we do not expect it to alter the $6B run rate target. With clearance complete across all jurisdictions, investor focus shifts to post-close execution.”

Morris added that he is eager to see the “timeline and composition” of the cost savings. Also at issue, he wrote, is whether the merged company can deliver mid-single-digit revenue growth and mid-20% EBITDA margins by the time the consent decree expires in 2030.

Sean Diffley of Morgan Stanley registered a more upbeat take, noting that the cost savings target is about 11% of operating expenses, but he sees “the majority of savings” from “non-labor” sources. Paramount will get to the number, he wrote in a client note by consolidating tech stacks and cloud providers, trimming the real estate portfolio and saving on marketing and other overhead costs.

“Relative to the wide range of potential outcomes and fears in the marketplace, the settlement … is a clear positive outcome for the pro-forma PSKY+WBD, in our view,” Diffley wrote.

Get our Breaking News Alerts and Keep your inbox happy.

Comments On Deadline Hollywood are monitored. So don't go off topic, don't impersonate anyone, and don't get your facts wrong.

Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() );