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WALL STREET

The biggest impediment to a deal for the Redstone family’s NAI or Paramount Global is the change of control provision that would require any financial buyer to refinance $11.2 billion of Paramount’s senior notes.

The Apollo Vultures Are Circling Shari

Here’s what the apostles of private equity really want from the Redstone heirloom. “It’s the beginning of the end, not the end of the beginning,” as one wise banker told me.
William D. Cohan • January 24, 2024
William D. Cohan • January 21, 2024
Goldman’s Inside Man & Peltz’s Disney Fantasia
The new lead independent director of Goldman Sachs will be David Viniar, the firm’s longtime chief financial officer.
Notes on the two hottest governance topics among the Maidstone crowd: Goldman’s post-Bayo board shuffle and Peltz’s latest monkey wrench.
William D. Cohan • January 17, 2024
The Murdochs in M&A Land
Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch attend the quarter-final match of the 2018 U.S. Open at Arthur Ashe stadium on September 5, 2018 in Flushing Meadows, Queens.
Bankers and analysts are getting worked up about new deal heat surrounding the usual suspects: Paramount, WBD, and Comcast. But an interesting idea is percolating on Wall Street regarding the fate of another couple entities: the remaining, winnowed Murdoch assets.
Skydance Media C.E.O. David Ellison attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on January 7, 2024.
William D. Cohan • January 14, 2024
Ellison’s Redstone Gambit & Ackman’s Endgame
News and notes on the stories percolating with the Dune Road crowd: David Ellison’s pursuit of National Amusements, Jamie’s boffo number, and Bill Ackman’s relentless crusade against KKR and Axel Springer.
First up for Comcast’s Brian Roberts in 2024 is the pending deal for the one-third stake in Hulu that Comcast owns, and that Bob Iger has said that Disney will buy.
William D. Cohan • January 10, 2024
The Philadelphia Story
Analyzing the position and motivation of the media industry’s biggest dealmaker as the bankers begin to swarm.
If you thought Bill Ackman would be placated by the resignation of University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill, following the congressional hearing during which she and other academic leaders fumbled their answers about antisemitism on campus, then you haven’t been paying attention.
William D. Cohan • January 7, 2024
Ackman’s Revenge & The Iger Hollywood Ending
News and notes on the trending Wall Street-media axis of interest: Ackman’s P.R. battle royale, Iger’s proxy wars, and Jimmy Pitaro’s latest mega-check.
Peter Orszag
William D. Cohan • 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?
William D. Cohan • 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.
The task will be for Bob Bakish to sell Shari on this or another deal, all while Shari carries on her own talks for NAI.
Matthew Belloni • December 22, 2023
Warners, Paramount, and the Allure of Mutual Desperation
Notes on Zaslav’s leaked meeting with Bakish, the deal chatter choreography, and the Comcast of it all.
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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
William D. Cohan • 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.
Burford Capital C.E.O. Christopher Bogart.
Eriq Gardner • November 27, 2023
An Interview With the Legal World’s $16 Billion Man
Christopher Bogart, the litigation financier who scored a 10-figure judgment against Argentina, goes on the record about his beef with Mike Johnson, Elon Musk’s legal fixer, and how he’s using A.I.
“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.”
William D. Cohan • 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.