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McDonald’s India CBO Arvind RP exits after seven years
The chief business officer exits after a stint that took him from marketing to leading South India operations.
MUMBAI: Arvind RP is out. The chief business officer of McDonald’s India has stepped down from the fast-food giant after more than seven years, and is currently serving out his notice period.
It is a significant exit. Arvind joined McDonald’s India in 2019 as director of marketing and communications, a fairly conventional brief, but steadily accumulated responsibilities until he was running the profit and loss for the company’s entire South India operation, with store operations, new outlet development, marketing, human resources and training all falling under his remit.
In a LinkedIn post, he was characteristically warm about his time there. “Looking back, many of the moments that stand out in my career aren’t just about outcomes or milestones; they’re about the incredible people who were part of the journey,” he wrote, adding that he had been “lucky to be surrounded by fantastic team members.”
Before McDonald’s, Arvind spent six years at skincare chain Kaya, where he led marketing and analytics, overseeing brand-building, product innovation and digital and customer relationship management. His career spans a remarkable sweep of Indian industry: retail at Levi Strauss & Co, consumer goods at Britannia Industries, and automobiles at TVS Motor Company, where he also took an international posting in Jakarta.
With 25 years of experience across quick-service restaurants, beauty, fashion and FMCG, Arvind will not be short of takers. The only question is who moves first.
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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.
