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William D. Cohan

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

THE LATEST ARTICLES
NEWSLETTERS
Peter Orszag, C.E.O. of Lazard, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on May 2, 2023.
WALL STREET • January 3, 2024
The Raising of Lazard
Peter Orszag, the new Lazard C.E.O., has an ambitious plan to double revenue by 2030. But can the former Obama aide transform an eccentric culture by emphasizing productivity, recalibrating fee structures, culling underperformers, and bringing in some rainmakers? He thinks so…
Is Shari Redstone’s dalliance with the M&A market a bust, or is anyone seriously capable of buying the Frankenstein’s monster that is Paramount Global?
WALL STREET • December 27, 2023
A Very Shari Christmas
Zaz & Co. have hired Allen & Co. to dig into the Paramount financials. Is this thing for real for now? Imagining the twists and turns and ultimate denouement of the House of Sumner.
Shari Redstone, president of National Amusements, walks to a morning session at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 12, 2023 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
WALL STREET • December 20, 2023
Shari’s Double-Trigger Deal Cooler
David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s oh-so-clever plan to seize Paramount Global through NAI would also have to contend with a potential $11.2 billion landmine: the crushing debt that would immediately come due if Wall Street downgrades Paramount’s credit rating.
Bill Ackman was as critical of Harvard’s admissions policies when he was an undergraduate as he is today as a billionaire tweeter.
WALL STREET • December 17, 2023
Ackman’s Harvard Admissions
Wall Street’s most voluble hedge fund macher is very publicly denouncing university presidents for their inability to police (and outright condemn) antisemitism on their campuses, while also supporting and investing in Elon Musk’s media company. Is this a contradiction, or just Ackman’s unique logic?
Sumner and Shari Redstone in 2012.
WALL STREET • December 13, 2023
I Know What You Did Last Sumner
An examination of the hidden complexities in Gerry Cardinale and David Ellison’s clever attempt to buy National Amusements from Shari Redstone—and, with it, the controlling stake in Paramount Global.
The Redstone family’s 10 percent economic stake in Paramount Global is now worth $1.1 billion.
PUCK • December 10, 2023
Shari’s Heirloom Sale & Iger’s Peltz Defense
News and notes on the latest intrigues from the media investor swirl.
Ari Emanuel and Silver Lake are managing the consequences of publicly mulling a sale of Endeavor, and are now trying to keep everything buttoned up as the market waits and salivates.
WALL STREET • December 6, 2023
Ari’s Deal & Zucker’s Next Steps
News and notes from the biggest deals in the media M&A landscape: Ari Emanuel’s purported take-private and Jeff Zucker’s Telegraph/Spectator play
The nascent Bob Iger-Nelson Peltz proxy war is gearing up to be far more feisty than their first encounter almost a year ago.
WALL STREET • December 3, 2023
Iger-Peltz Vulcan Chess, Zucker’s Thesis & Elon EBITDA
News and notes on the three biggest stories at the intersection of media and finance: some micro-updates on Zucker’s Telegraph bid, Elon’s debt gamble, and the latest round of Iger versus Peltz.
Not only would a Jeff Zucker deal potentially kill the auction for the publications, it might also allow RedBird IMI to get the assets more cheaply than if they were bid up in a formal process.
WALL STREET • November 29, 2023
Zucker’s Structure Wrinkle & OpenAI Open Questions
News and notes emanating from the finance-media-tech vortex: insights into Jeff Zucker and RedBird IMI’s debt-for-equity Telegraph offer and Microsoft’s governance peccadilloes.
“I’ve never had better material,” Michael Lewis said. “The material is unbelievable. And it was. But it had to pass through this American moral filter.”
WALL STREET • November 26, 2023
Michael Lewis Has More Thoughts on S.B.F.
The bestselling author of Going Infinite hits back at the “shit show” criticism of his book, the spectacle inside the courtroom, and S.B.F.’s putative $5 billion offer to Trump.
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