MAM
Hybrid opens a new office in Gurugram, establishing it as the corporate headquarters in India
Mumbai: Hybrid has announced the opening of its new office in Gurugram, Haryana. With this development, Hybrid aims to grow its presence in India and attract top local talent. The Gurugram office will also act as the new corporate headquarters for the brand in India, complementing its existing representative offices in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Kolkata.
Hybrid INSEA managing director and co-founder Shreyas Sathe reflected on the company’s journey in India, highlighting the market’s vast potential. “Our journey so far in India reflects the market’s tremendous potential. We have been able to align the interests of both brands and agencies by delivering outstanding campaign results through our cutting-edge, AI-driven products and solutions. As we progress further, I am sure we will be able to further strengthen our ties with brands and agencies and other major stakeholders in the digital ecosystem exceeding their expectations and enhancing their brand presence with our cookie-less solutions.”
Hybrid entered the Indian market in 2020 and quickly became the market leader via its cutting-edge AI-driven advertising solutions such as Hybrid Platform contextual marketing suite VOX, Hybrid Places, and TV Sync technologies. From humble beginnings, Hybrid’s India team has been able to attract major brands and agencies such as Havells, Honda, Rado, Foundit, Mondelez, Shalimar Chemicals, TTK Prestige, GroupM, Dentsu, OMD, Interactive Avenues, and many more.
“With increasing privacy regulations and the decline of third-party cookies, there’s been a significant shift towards alternative, cookie-less advertising technologies that respect privacy laws. At Hybrid, we aim to lead this transition with our AI-driven contextual and programmatic solutions” said Hybrid country head India Gandharv Sachdeva.
Hybrid is an international ad tech company that provides marketers and their agencies with technological solutions for buying and optimizing advertising campaigns in digital media. The company offers an entire ecosystem for programmatic ad buying and proprietary non-cookie solutions for contextual targeting and uses proprietary artificial intelligence algorithms based on neural networks. It specialises in providing innovative and customised solutions to improve the effectiveness of digital advertising campaigns. The company’s 10 representative offices worldwide include India, Poland, Indonesia, Vietnam, Germany, Mexico, Cyprus, The US, Thailand, and Singapore.
MAM
Paramount set to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in $81 billion deal
Shareholders back merger, combined entity could reshape streaming and studios.
MUMBAI: Lights, camera… consolidation, Hollywood’s latest blockbuster might be happening off-screen. Shareholders of Warner Bros. Discovery have voted in favour of selling the company to Paramount in a deal valued at $81 billion rising to nearly $111 billion including debt setting the stage for one of the biggest shake-ups in modern media. The proposed merger, still subject to regulatory approvals, would bring together a vast portfolio spanning HBO Max, CNN, and franchises such as Harry Potter under the same umbrella as Paramount’s own heavyweights, including Top Gun and CBS.
At the heart of the deal is streaming scale. Executives have indicated plans to combine HBO Max and Paramount+ into a single platform, potentially creating a stronger challenger to giants like Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video. Current market data suggests HBO Max holds around 12 per cent of US on-demand subscriptions, compared to Paramount+’s 3 per cent, together still trailing Netflix’s 19 per cent and Disney’s combined 27 per cent via Disney+ and Hulu.
Paramount CEO David Ellison has signalled that while platforms may merge, HBO’s creative identity will remain intact, stating the brand should “stay HBO” even within a broader ecosystem.
Beyond streaming, the deal would redraw the map for film production. Combining two of Hollywood’s oldest studios Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., the new entity aims to scale output to over 30 films annually, while maintaining a 45-day theatrical window. Warner Bros. currently commands around 21 per cent of the US box office, compared to Paramount’s 6 per cent, underscoring the strategic weight of the acquisition.
But scale comes with scrutiny. Critics warn that fewer players could mean reduced consumer choice, rising subscription costs, and potential job cuts as the combined company looks to streamline overlapping operations while managing billions in debt.
The news business, too, faces a reset. CNN would join forces at least structurally with Paramount-owned CBS, raising questions about editorial independence and positioning. The merger has already drawn political attention in the United States, particularly given perceived ties between the Ellison family and Donald Trump, though the company maintains that newsroom autonomy will be preserved.
If approved, the deal would mark another milestone in Hollywood’s consolidation wave shrinking the industry’s traditional “big six” studios to a “big four”, with Paramount joining Disney, Universal, and Sony at the top table.
In an industry built on storytelling, this merger may well become its most consequential plot twist yet.
