The overwhelming investor and media presumption is that only one bidder, Paramount, has a regulatory fast track to an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. That viewpoint is based on President Trump’s affection for Paramount/CBS following the Skydance transaction. While there is no doubt that Paramount would be Trump’s preferred bidder and would likely not face…
On Friday evening, CNBC reporter Alex Sherman tweeted out (link): “Comcast’s bid for WBD’s streaming and studio assets did not include spinning off NBCU.” We have assumed Comcast would spin-off NBCU (ex-TV stations and to-be-spun Versant) and merge it with Warner Bros. Discovery, which would then spin-off its global linear cable network businesses, called Discovery…
After we highlighted content ingestion as a critical battleground issue in future MVPD/vMVPD negotiations in September (link), former WarnerMedia CRO, Tony Goncalves, posted the following to LinkedIn (reprinted below with his permission): To ingest or not to ingest. That’s the question. Thank you Rich Greenfield for reminding me of the journey.Streaming was supposed to break…
StubHub will report earnings for the first time tomorrow after its September 17th IPO. A top line and EBITDA beat is a near certainty, as the company went public with only two weeks remaining in its quarter and likely ensured that analysts on the deal left the room set up for a good start. Much…
Following the meteoric rise of TikTok (which broke 100 million users in 2020), Instagram launched Reels, its short-form, swipeable vertical video feed, in August 2020 and started monetizing through advertising in Q3 2021. Four years later, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Reels was now at a $50 billion advertising revenue run rate. This past…
Since Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount closed on August 7, 2025, the company has outlined its vision (link) and spoken to the press, but tonight marks the first time it has communicated directly with Wall Street. Beyond Paramount’s February 2025 S-4, the newly combined company has not provided updated financial guidance for 2025, let alone 2026…
Cogent’s quarter didn’t fix the story. The dividend is gone, the wavelength growth still hasn’t shown up as promised, and the balance sheet remains stretched no matter how management presents the numbers. The gap between what the company promises and what it delivers is becoming harder to ignore. We maintain the Sell rating and cut…
Earlier this week, we joined The Grill Room podcast, hosted by Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander (full episode embedded below, followed by key highlights and timestamps). The one-hour discussion focused on the future of Warner Brothers Discovery. We discussed why Paramount is likely to win if the Ellisons are willing to overpay, why it feels…
We are increasingly confident that Comcast will propose a combination of NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. in the weeks ahead, focused on the structure we laid out yesterday (Can Brian Roberts Build a Warner Bros-NBCUniversal Rival to Mickey Mouse?). Earlier today, Comcast Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh stated: On M&A generally, I mean, I think we’ve said repeatedly,…
New CEO Dan Schulman provided few details on how he would return Verizon to subscriber growth, his stated goal. What was once Vestberg’s “5 vectors of growth” has now become Schulman’s three pillars of something we’re still trying to decode. The only tangible elements of a new Verizon strategy seem to be no more price…
You must be logged in to post a comment.