WALL STREET
William D. Cohan
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December 22, 2024
SpinCo City
After a year of legacy media conglomerate C.E.O.s alternately putting “everything on the table,” the scope of the real deal activity will become clear in 1H25.
William D. Cohan
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December 18, 2024
Space Cowboys
The rise, fall, and return of Zero-G, the “zero gravity” lower-priced alternative to Blue Origin, which allows tourists and researchers to experience the flavor of space over the Atlantic for 10 grand a pop.
William D. Cohan
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December 15, 2024
Zaz in Cable Wonderland
At first blush, WBD’s chief seems to be following Brian Roberts’ “SpinCo” strategy for his own declining linear assets. But a closer look at the sheer legal and M&A firepower he’s enlisted reveals a debt-reduction/P.E. play that more closely resembles AT&T’s sale of DirecTV.
William D. Cohan
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December 5, 2024
Trump’s Pre-Inaugural Stock Slump
The value of the president-elect’s media company, which is on track to lose an incredible $363 million this year, has bizarrely skyrocketed before the election and is trading at an absurd 2,770x revenue. Will Elon get his taste via a reverse merger?
William D. Cohan
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November 27, 2024
The Apollo Landing That Wasn’t
Last week, Apollo’s Marc Rowan was summoned to Mar-a-Lago to talk about leading the Treasury for Trump 2.0. And while the job went to Scott Bessent in the end, the meeting reveals the president-elect’s sweeping agenda and what some on Wall Street see as a massive opportunity.
William D. Cohan
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November 24, 2024
The Legend of the Celtics L.B.O.
The true story of how Wyc Grousbeck, perhaps the least well-capitalized owner in sports, had the chutzpah to buy the Celtics in one of the greatest deals in modern sports history.
William D. Cohan
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November 21, 2024
Apollo Lands in Washington
As Apollo C.E.O. Marc Rowan prepares to meet with Trump over the Treasury job, a bildungsroman of his professional and deal career—from parking cars at the Diplomat Hotel to big mergers for junk bond casualty Drexel Burnham—and his reflections from our many conversations over the past years and days.
William D. Cohan
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November 17, 2024
Cable Prepares for the Value Extraction Era
With the once-unprofitable streaming business finally turning a corner, NBCU, Disney, and WBD are all openly telegraphing what seems increasingly inevitable: spinning off or selling declining TV assets while there’s still value to extract. Enter private equity, an industry that knows a thing or two about value extraction…
William D. Cohan
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November 13, 2024
The X/DJT Merger Deal Book
Crunching the numbers on a Mar-a-Lago meme stock fever dream.
William D. Cohan
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November 10, 2024
Trump Treasury Prophecies & Trickle-Down Zazonomics
News and notes on two of Wall Street’s hottest topics: speculation regarding Trump’s forthcoming treasury secretary (Steve? Gary? Paulson?) and the latest debt-servicing tea leaves in Zazworld.
William D. Cohan
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November 6, 2024
The Secret History of the Paramount Deal
What the merger’s 600-page proxy filing reveals about who wanted Paramount (Zaz! Apollo! The mysterious “Party F”!) and how they managed to lose to David Ellison’s Skydance.
William D. Cohan
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November 4, 2024
The Comcast Cable Prenup
Mike Cavanagh’s earnings call mic drop about the future of Comcast’s cable networks has the industry—and the denizens of 30 Rock, in particular—looking for tea leaves to read about what the executives in Philly are apparently “studying.”
William D. Cohan
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October 30, 2024
What Would James Gorman Do?
News, notes, tea leaf-reading, and second-guessing regarding Wall Street’s favorite (recurring) succession sweepstakes.
William D. Cohan
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October 27, 2024
Wall Street Bets on Trump 2.0
The rest of America may see the election as too close to call, but Wall Street is preparing for Trump’s second coming. Herewith, a chilling chat with a couple liberal finance titans, who also happen to be Trump Wall Street truthers.
William D. Cohan
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October 23, 2024
Raider of the Lost ARK
Since her fund’s pandemic peak, Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has vaporized $14.3 billion in shareholder value. So why is she still giving investment advice on CNBC?
William D. Cohan
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October 20, 2024
The Trump Economic Disaster Warning
My recent chat with Simon Johnson, a newly minted Nobel laureate, covered all the pre-election anxiety touchstones: the inflation political headache, Biden’s financial comms challenge, Trump’s phony arithmetic, and some memories of 2008, too.
William D. Cohan
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October 16, 2024
Barbarians at the Pearly Gates
Once upon a time, the LBO business was the most innovative and disruptive—and, honestly, sexy—part of Wall Street, planting the seed for the ~$6 trillion private equity market. But now that P.E. is pivoting to private credit, a new set of tools are being unleashed, and a new generation of winners and losers will be minted.