WALL STREET
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.
William D. Cohan
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May 29, 2024
S.B.F.’s Diesel Therapy
The crypto convict is on a cross-country prison bus to California, planning his appeal, and claiming Sullivan & Cromwell bartered away his freedom. Does he have a case?
William D. Cohan
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May 26, 2024
The Tao of Zaz
News and notes on the imagined internal monologue of David Zaslav as he contemplates a busy summer agenda: the NBA sitch, the exigencies of the Paramount Global deal, and the $39 billion in debt.
William D. Cohan
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May 22, 2024
Starz Wars
An only-in-Hollywood story about Lionsgate, the Screaming Eagle SPAC, and “creditor-on-creditor violence.”
William D. Cohan
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May 19, 2024
Sleuthing the S.B.F. Appeal
Sam Bankman-Fried may be locked up for 25 years for one of the greatest financial crimes in history. But clues to his appeal strategy may be emerging.
William D. Cohan
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May 15, 2024
Shari’s Ticking Clock
More news and notes from inside the Paramount quiet period. “We’re running out of things to delay this on,” shared one participant in the process.