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NEWSLETTERS
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.


“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
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.
Trian founder partner Nelson Peltz has commenced a proxy battle against Disney to get the board seat Iger denied him.
William D. Cohan November 19, 2023
News and notes on the latest Wall Street swirl: Nelson Peltz’s fuzz math, Zaz’s denominator problems, and the latest leg of the ARK saga.
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