WALL STREET
William D. Cohan
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July 31, 2024
There’s Something About Larry
For years, GE provided executives with a juicy dowry in retirement, bestowed at the sole discretion of the C.E.O. Then Larry Culp came along and started tinkering with the formula, spinning off the liabilities as he broke up Jack Welch’s empire. Now Culp is backtracking, but the damage has been done. “You can hear [Jack] screaming,” said one person involved in the litigation. “The company has changed culturally, and not for the better.”
William D. Cohan
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July 29, 2024
Ackman of the People
News and notes on the bizarre and bewildering saga of Pershing Square USA’s long journey to the public market.
William D. Cohan
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July 24, 2024
The Ackman Cometh
Bill Ackman’s forthcoming publicly traded closed-end fund appears to offer retail investors the chance to ride along with the investment strategies of the guy who believes he is the heir to Warren Buffett. Is this a play for permanent capital or something more ephemeral?
William D. Cohan
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July 21, 2024
Zaz’s Everything-on-the-Table Era
On the heels of the now-infamous BofA note suggesting that WBD needs to buy or sell assets to survive, and Zaz’s own misguided political commentary at the Lodge in Sun Valley, it’s increasingly clear that both the markets and Zaz know that his company needs a shake-up. But what to do in an environment so inhospitable to M&A?
William D. Cohan
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July 17, 2024
Casus Gabelli
Can Paramount’s long-suffering Class A shareholder successfully twist Shari’s arm and find out what, exactly, David Ellison and the RedBird guys are paying for her slice of the pie? Herewith, a conversation with Mario Gabelli, the architect of Operation Fishbowl.
William D. Cohan
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July 14, 2024
Shari’s Schmuck Insurance
The Ellison/RedBird deal to buy Paramount includes a 45-day “go-shop” period, during which the special committee is empowered to consider other bidders: Sony and Apollo, Bronfman and Bain, Barry Diller, or Steven Paul. But there are a dozen reasons to believe that none of these rumored suitors will upset the apple cart.
William D. Cohan
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July 10, 2024
The Shari Orchard
An assessment of the dynastic saga, the heavy NAI carrying costs, the Ellison anointment, and simultaneous challenge of growing the business while eliminating $2 billion in carrying costs. “It’s a huge commitment,” Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird Capital, told me on Tuesday.
William D. Cohan
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July 3, 2024
“Cautious But Tenacious”: The Shari Saga Continues
The rebooted Ellison/Paramount deal would be a complicated arrangement with several moving parts, but it appears to be one that Shari Redstone could live with—even if everything could still go wrong.
William D. Cohan
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June 30, 2024
Advanced Zazonomics & Goldman Kremlinology
More news and notes on the Wall Street and media industrial complex. Plus, a fascinating detail or two about Biden’s all-important family dinner tonight at Camp David.
William D. Cohan
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June 26, 2024
Bezos’ Rubber Room & Shari’s Plan B
News and notes on the dual obsessions of the Sconset set: whether Shari will reconsider the private equity pill and break up Paramount; and how Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis may be taking a page from Wall Street’s layoff playbook with their plan for a “third newsroom” at The Washington Post.
William D. Cohan
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June 23, 2024
Nantucket’s “Clam Shack” Fiasco
The only-in-Nantucket saga of billionaire Charles Johnson’s legal battle to put the kibosh on a humble clam shack, which ostensibly threatened the serenity of the Old North Wharf billionaire enclave.
William D. Cohan
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June 19, 2024
A Paramount Post-Postmortem
Charting the mounting animosities among all the interested parties—Shari, Skydance and RedBird, the special committee, Gabelli—after the endless Paramount saga capsized in an instant.
William D. Cohan
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June 16, 2024
The Goldman Rush
The doubters have dropped away (for now) as David Solomon brings one of Wall Street’s most powerful firms back from its multi-billion dollar consumer banking boondoggle.
William D. Cohan
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June 12, 2024
Shari-Kiri
Deal chatter around Shari Redstone’s shocking, and yet perhaps not entirely unsurprising, decision to kill the Skydance/RedBird acquisition at the thirteenth hour, and forgo billions in order to preserve her place at Sun Valley and table at Dan Tana’s. As one deal observer put it, “It’s why people shouldn’t inherit companies.”
William D. Cohan
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June 9, 2024
Shari’s Final Cherry & Elon’s $56B D-Day
Advice for David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale as they contemplate a last-minute wrinkle in their Paramount deal. Plus, notes on Elon’s comp and the GameStop roller coaster.
William D. Cohan
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June 5, 2024
The Shari Soap Opera’s Final Twist
Unimaginably, Shari Redstone has reintroduced a dealpoint that threatens to nuke the Paramount sale. Will Gerry and Ellison blink? And will Mario Gabelli, the aggrieved longtime investor, finally wet his beak?
William D. Cohan
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June 2, 2024
Shari and the Jeffs
News, notes, ruminations, and tea-leaf decoding regarding the final throes of the Paramount M&A saga.