Zaz’s Bonus Math & Trump’s Banking Crisis

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 29: David Zaslav speaks onstage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2023 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on November 29, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for The New York Times)
William D. Cohan
May 29, 2024

Well, dear reader, the world found out this week what I’ve been faithfully telling you all along—there was never any real chance that David Zaslav’s imperiled Warner Bros. Discovery was going to swallow up Shari Redstone’s incredible shrinking Paramount Global. There was no way—as I wrote last December, the moment word leaked that Zaz had lunch with Paramount Global C.E.O. Bob Bakish—that the two sides were going to strike a deal.