Merger talks between Paramount Global and Warner Bros Discovery set the scene for future M&A drama. But if Paramount is in play, it’s not clear that WBD boss David Zaslav, or his $28 billion entertainment empire, are best suited for the leading role in a potential deal. Zaslav and his Paramount counterpart Bob Bakish met this week to discuss a potential tie-up, in talks first reported by Axios. That suggests Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, whose family firm National Amusements owns 77% of Paramount’s voting stock, is open to the idea. She should be: National Amusements took a $125 million capital infusion from

Brian Roberts is a buyer rather than a seller. The boss of U.S. media giant Comcast may want to make an exception for Sky. Four years after he won the auction for the European pay-TV provider with a $40 billion bid, the logic of the deal remains fuzzy while consumers are under duress. Spinning off Sky while it’s still in decent shape will shortcut challenges on the horizon. Including acquired debt, Roberts paid a multiple of 15 times Sky’s EBITDA to clinch the deal, two and a half times the company’s enterprise value before the takeover battle began. That was because he

Antitrust crackdowns make it hard for buyers and sellers to get on the same frequency. Tegna, which operates broadcast television stations throughout the United States, has agreed to sell to hedge fund Standard General. The agreement includes tight protections for the seller, a reflection of just how difficult the merger environment has become. Broadcast deals contend with a byzantine regulatory rule book set up when rabbit ears on television sets were the main way people got their news and entertainment. For instance, no broadcast group is allowed to reach more than 39% of the population or control too many stations in a

Sporty buyout fund CVC Capital Partners is at it again. After failing to convince Italy’s Serie A of its plans for the soccer league’s commercial rights, the private equity group is taking its sales pitch to Spain. Its proposals to La Liga have a better chance of finding the back of the net. CVC’s forays into soccer build on its experiences with Formula One and rugby. Under the plan, which is yet to be approved by the clubs in La Liga’s general assembly, the firm will pay 2.7 billion euros for 10% of a new entity that will focus on

Walt Disney’s streaming service Disney+ is rocketing ahead, with big names and big audiences. So it makes ever less sense that the U.S. media colossus also owns a majority stake in less successful video streamer Hulu. While Disney can buy out minority partner Comcast in a couple of years, it might be better off selling Hulu instead. The broadcaster of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is an odd fit for Disney. The Mouse House initially had one-third of Hulu, which grew to two-thirds, plus operational control, when it bought parts of Fox in 2019. Comcast owns the rest. Disney boss Bob Chapek

Amazon.com would combine a few moves in its potential $9 billion MGM Holdings deal. Jeff Bezos’s firm may pay a huge premium for the co-owner of the James Bond franchise, despite the risk that it could get caught in regulatory purgatory. But even if a deal isn’t approved, it would take a coveted asset off the streaming market for a while, giving the $1.6 trillion e-commerce giant a chance to catch up to media rivals. In a deal that could be announced as soon as Tuesday, according to media reports, Amazon would pay almost two-thirds more than where the privately-traded

If there is something that John Malone likes, it’s a complicated, tax-free deal. The U.S. media mogul has gotten his wish in the tie-up between media company Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia TV and movie assets announced on Monday. If only the deal were equally appealing to Discovery’s regular shareholders. The so-called cable cowboy will hand over his stake in Discovery, turning his supervoting shares into the normal kind, and is expected to get a seat on the board. Decades-long partner Advance/Newhouse, which together with Malone commands 44% of the Food Network operator’s votes, will give up certain rights too, like

Sometimes a forced seller can still be a lucky one. Take Walt Disney as an example. Just last year, it sold a cluster of sports networks to Sinclair Broadcast for some $10 billion – and on Wednesday, Sinclair wrote down their value by more than $4 billion. That takes some of the sting out of Disney’s expensive carve-up of Twenty-First Century Fox, which made it a seller of the sports networks in the first place. Sinclair has given a few reasons why the networks are worth less than it thought. Covid-19 is one, of course, because it has messed up

The risks to Walt Disney’s business are multiplying. Most of its theme parks and movie theaters are empty thanks to Covid-19. Though Disney has some more virus-resistant properties, that’s just the start. Former Chief Executive Bob Iger has left his successor with serious headaches. Global social distancing is causing chaos. The $171 billion Disney late last week slammed the doors shut on its amusement parks in California, Florida and Paris and suspended its cruises after making similar moves with its resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong. The movie outlook is darkening too, if China is a leading indicator. Box office

Rip Van Winkle falls asleep in the British-held territory of America and wakes up 20 years later in an independent country. The CBS-Viacom reunion bears similarities to Washington Irving’s fictional character. Thirteen years ago, media mogul Sumner Redstone, whose family controls both companies, decided to separate the U.S. broadcaster and the Paramount Pictures owner. CBS was the slower, traditional network while Viacom was home to then zippy cable channels MTV and Nickelodeon. The split was meant to unlock value and, as a side benefit, solve a succession problem between executives Tom Freston and Les Moonves. That strategy failed. The firm

TV crossover shows are often gimmicky affairs wheeled out when writers have run out of ideas. Witness the dreary Family Guy-Simpsons episode from 2014 – long after both cartoons had passed their peak. European broadcasters like ProSiebenSat.1 should bear that in mind as Italian peer Mediaset pushes for tie-ups in the struggling sector. The 2.7 billion euro German group, which reported second-quarter results on Wednesday, illustrates the problems facing traditional broadcasters across the continent. ProSieben Chief Executive Max Conze squeezed out a decent quarter: revenue rose 4% year-on-year to 947 million euros, as its fast-growing production and e-commerce units offset

No more Mr. Nice Mouse. Walt Disney is launching its flagship video-streaming product in November, and in order to attract a boatload of subscribers, it’s going to be cheap. Competitors will come out swinging. And Bob Iger, the media giant’s chief executive, may not stick around to see how it all pans out. Disney took the wraps off its highly anticipated Disney Plus on Thursday during a three hour-plus investor event. When the price point of $7 per month was revealed, there was a gasp in the audience. It’s half what Netflix costs, more or less. Even without that sucker