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William D. Cohan

A bestselling author, financial journalist, and former M&A banker, covering what’s really happening on Wall Street.

THE LATEST ARTICLES
NEWSLETTERS
All indications are that Bob Iger has decided to own the third of Hulu he doesn’t own and he has already started talking about combining Hulu with Disney+.
WALL STREET • May 28, 2023
The Iger-Roberts Chess Match & Icahn’s Duel
News and notes from the Maidstone crowd and Burning Tree delegation.
Morgan Stanley C.E.O. James Gorman has set up a ‘Succession’-like race to succeed him.
WALL STREET • May 24, 2023
Gorman’s Goodbye: Inside a C.E.O. Succession Bake-Off
I talk to a lot of well-wired people inside Morgan Stanley all the time: here’s what’s going to happen next. Plus notes on succession planning inside my old stomping grounds: Lazard and JPMC.
Peter Orszag will likely take the reins from Ken Jacobs as C.E.O. of Lazard.
WALL STREET • May 21, 2023
Lazard Succession, Iger’s ESPN Move, & Netflix’s Ozempic
News and notes on the latest intrigue swirling around the Sconset set and Gin Lane weekend crowd: what’s next for Lazard, my old stomping grounds; Iger’s ESPN calculation; and late-breaking SVB lessons.
A division of Steve Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group more or less pulled the plug recently on 1740 Broadway, a 26-story building between 55th and 56th streets.
WALL STREET • May 17, 2023
Fade to Blackstone
Insights into a REIT headache, and some of the craftiest investors who are seeing around the corner.
WALL STREET • May 14, 2023
Iger’s Existential Question
There’s no erasing his historic earlier tenure at Disney, but the company is looking increasingly vulnerable, especially since Iger’s last big deal will likely be the $9 billion he’d spend to buy Hulu.
Under the leadership of Ken Jacobs, who has been extremely well paid, Lazard has grown bigger and more robust. But its stock has underperformed badly.
WALL STREET • May 10, 2023
Lazard Times
How Wall Street’s most mysterious, enigmatic, and flamboyant firm—“l’haute banque d’affaires vis-à-vis the world”—was brought down by fate and tragedy, and what it can do to become exceptional again.
It’s not clear what our friend Warren was thinking when he invested in what is now known as Paramount Global.
WALL STREET • May 7, 2023
A Warren-Shari Mystery & Ackman’s Icahnfreude
News and notes on the rumblings inside Wall Street C-suites, the Sconset set, and the Gin Lane mafia: the Berkshire Hathaway-Paramount mystery, a Goldman curiosity, and the latest Icahn controversy.
Jamie Dimon is predicting, conservatively, that First Republic will add $500 million in net income to JPM’s bottom line.
WALL STREET • May 3, 2023
Droppin’ Dimons
A brief history of how Jamie Dimon and JPM became the saviors of Wall Street.
Comcast C.E.O. Brian Roberts.
WALL STREET • April 30, 2023
Lazard Fears & NBCU C-Suite Tea Leaves
Notes on Brian Roberts’ post-Shell, pre-merger executive placeholder; a banking mini-crisis postmortem; and the end of the Lazard Way.
Does Comcast C.E.O. Brian Roberts’ decision to appoint Mike Cavanagh as Shell’s interim successor suggest that he’s preparing for a hypothetical combination of NBCU with Warner Bros. Discovery?
WALL STREET • April 26, 2023
The Post-Shell WBD-NBCU M&A Fantasy
With Shell out and Hulu in limbo, the fantasy of a Roberts-governed, Zaz-operated, post-Reverse Morris mega merger is more tantalizing than ever.
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