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What Warren Sees in Shari

News and notes on Buffett’s mediaco M&A play, Elon’s latest machinations, and why Wall Street bankers love Brian Roberts.

Paramount Global chairperson Shari Redstone can pretty much do whatever she wants at the now-combined entity, including replacing its C.E.O., its board and single-handedly deciding whether the company should be sold.
Paramount Global chairperson Shari Redstone can pretty much do whatever she wants at the now-combined entity, including replacing its C.E.O., its board and single-handedly deciding whether the company should be sold. Photo: Jared Siskin/Patrick McMullan, Getty Images
William D. Cohan
May 22, 2022

My former M&A banker instincts were triggered this week after Warren Buffett, the most gifted investor of our lifetime, disclosed a $2.6 billion stake in Paramount Global, formerly ViacomCBS, a company whose leadership I have occasionally criticized. Paramount, after all, holds an awkward position on the streaming leaderboard, not only too small to compete with the likes of Netflix and Disney but also too bulky—following Shari Redstone’s recombination of the Viacom and CBS assets—to be easily acquirable by a rival, especially as long as the once-beloved CBS linear television network remains in the picture.