My report two weeks ago on Shari Redstone’s talks with David Ellison’s Skydance and RedBird Capital seems to have sparked a feeding frenzy on Paramount Global and its parent, National Amusements, Inc. One or both of these companies almost certainly will be sold/merged in 2024, but it’s probably not worth getting especially worked up (yet!) about the Warner Bros. Discovery talks, first reported yesterday by Axios. I confirmed that a long meeting did take place between WBD’s David Zaslav and Paramount’s Bob Bakish. But Bakish can put on a little top hat and hawk his assets like a sidewalk salesman to anyone and everyone, the only thing that matters here is whether a deal passes the Shari test.
Warners, Paramount, and the Allure of Mutual Desperation
