I'm not sure what to think about the merger. On one side, it sounds like it's just a name change and nothing will be really different. On the other, the talents make it sound like it's more than that. For example, this line in Bae's tweet about the situation:

There's a lot to be upset about but for me, I choose to believe that things will be okay because honestly that's all I can do.

You did not hear such language about the change from Council/Hope to Promise for example. It sounded more positive. So I am anxious that this might affect more than just the name.

I am also not really convinced by the company line about breaking group boundaries. This has never been a problem for the EN and ID branches in the past, but the JP talents (for the most part) are bound by the language barrier. I don't really see us English-speaking fans gaining anything from this, while every hour the bilingual EN talents are "encouraged" to stream more on the JP side is an hour that they don't stream in a language that I speak. If this turns out the way I fear it will, it certainly is an opportunity for cover and for the talents to make the non-JP talents more popular in JP, but it could come at a cost for existing EN/Id fans.

It's not all bad, though. I hope that the merger will help the EN and ID branches stop being treated as second-class citizens inside Cover. That burden will be carried by all the talents that keep living outside of JP. The (former) ID branch will especially be hit hard by this.

Also, after watching the whole thing, all that talk about breaking boundaries and one happy family and then showing the anime with not a single non-JP member just sits wrong with me.