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Gerry Cardinale

david ellison

David Ellison’s Troubling H.R. File

Hollywood’s newest mogul has risen to the head of—potentially—two studios so quickly that there are still vast reaches of his leadership style to explore. One early trend: a tendency to hire managers with sketchy pasts and see largely unremarkable results.
Kim Masters • March 10, 2026
William D. Cohan • March 8, 2026
$16.02 Candles
Larry Ellison
The strangest number in Larry Ellison’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery may be $16.02—the price he and RedBird agreed to pay for $47 billion of new Paramount Skydance stock, a 60 percent premium that has Wall Street scratching its head.
Matthew Belloni • March 6, 2026
Gerry Cardinale Swears He Isn’t Firing Everybody
Gerry Cardinale
Paramount’s board member and chief dealmaker insists his $111 billion acquisition of Warner Discovery will make financial sense without the mass layoffs Hollywood fears. But can the cashflow of CBS, a combined streaming platform with 200 million subscribers, and the backing of the Ellisons succeed where past debt-fueled mergers have not?
Mathias Döpfner
Dylan Byers • February 25, 2026
The WaPo Shiva Begins
Just when the slow-motion Telegraph sale finally seemed ready to close, Mathias Döpfner entered the chat. Does Axel Springer’s dark horse bid have any real chance? And why does anyone want the headache of owning a newspaper in 2026 anyway?
David Ellison
William D. Cohan • January 25, 2026
Ellison Rex
As the Netflix conquest of Warners looks more like a fait accompli, a new Paramount Skydance preliminary proxy statement once again argues for the supremacy of its bid—and with a couple of new persuasive arguments. But is PSKY’s reluctance to raise its bid a sign of an Oedipal test, or the inevitable realization that it’s time to move on?
Larry Ellison
William D. Cohan • December 21, 2025
“Larry Didn’t Show Up, and David Got Ahead of His Skis”
Everything you wanted to know about the Warner Bros. Discovery board’s doubts with the Ellisons’ bid (but were afraid to ask) is revealed in its 14D-9 filing—a mother lode of alleged Paramount missteps, from squabbles over consent provisions and breakup fee reimbursements to junior lien debt and the financial capacity of the world’s fifth-richest man.
Gerry Cardinale
Dylan Byers • November 14, 2025
The RedBird Balloon
After a second bid to take over The Telegraph met a particularly British brand of resistance, RedBird Capital walked away from the whole ordeal. Now the 170-year-old paper is back to waiting for a Goldilocks buyer.
Larry Ellison, David Ellison
Kim Masters • November 3, 2025
Have We Reached Peak Ellison Anxiety?
The surest sign that the Ellisons are still frontrunners in the WBD sweepstakes? The chorus of industry critics is growing—and fantasizing about other options. Meanwhile, the PSKY team might be looking to take its bid over the top with help from abroad.
Gerry Cardinale
Dylan Byers • October 15, 2025
Where the RedBird Grows
Besides chipping in $2 billion for Skydance’s Paramount takeover, RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale is preparing to take over The Telegraph and shuffling deck chairs among London’s newspaper ranks.
david ellison
Dylan Byers • August 15, 2025
Ellison Island
Ellison has embarked on a marathon charm offensive to convey optimism toward his self-appointed quixotic task of scaling Paramount, taking on Netflix, and saving Hollywood. But, yes, there will be cuts—especially at CBS News, the least glamorous and most challenged corner of his new entertainment empire.