7 ms·
amazing that people still write articles like this and get away with it… everyone knows why this purchase was made and this mate is discussing things even my 12
by bdangubic 8mo ago
amazing that people still write articles like this and get away with it… everyone knows why this purchase was made and this mate is discussing things even my 12-year old would not bring up. X purchase maybe was understandable discussion but in 2026 writing article like this is borderline “criminal”
- rgbrgb 8mo ago> everyone knows why this purchase was made you should say what you're talking about because I for one have no idea.
- cyanydeez 8mo agoIts a cynical media control strategy to prevent taxes on the rich.
- ViktorRay 8mo agoThis doesn’t make sense. Surely paying taxes would be cheaper than buying Warner Bros?
- cyanydeez 8mo agoThat's what a poor person would say. Fox news managed to get Donald Trump elected, whose net worth has gone up by billions. Also, it's not real money, it's debt equity. Equity transfers are just rich people toys. They move the actual cost into the entity they purchase, and if it fails, whatever, it didn't cost them anything.
- lotsofpulp 8mo agoAnd all the other investors in the market just ignore this debt when deciding the price they are willing to pay for a share? Shares of businesses with excessive debt relative to income do not do well for their shareholders.
- cyanydeez 8mo agoRuining society is a long term objective. Normal 6month profteers need not apply.
- lotsofpulp 8mo agoI don’t know what that means. You wrote something about debt equity not costing shareholders anything, but it’s trivial to see that all else being equal, a business with more debt will have a smaller market capitalization than a business with less debt. The debt from the Time Warner and other purchases dragged ATT down from the top spot to 3rd, and boosted Tmobile to the top. The shareholders of ATT lost and the shareholders of Tmobile gained.
- afavour 8mo agoI assume OP is talking about an ideological motive to take over the media industry and pivot it in a rightward direction. That’s certainly what happened with CBS News, I think it’s fair to speculate about CNN too. No idea why OP alluded to it rather than just said it though.
- warkdarrior 8mo agoEven if that is indeed the motive, the article is useful in showing how from a financial perspective this is bad deal for Paramount.
- afavour 8mo agoAbsolutely. But it’s still relevant because depending on your goal (and your resources) a bad deal that burns cash might still be a positive outcome. Not dissimilar from Musk buying Twitter, objectively he overpaid by a ton for a business that wasn’t thriving. But I think time has shown that his purchase has paid political and ideological dividends. Which might be worth the money to him.
- bdangubic 8mo agodidn’t think I had to actually explain it :)
- DaveFr 8mo agoThe idea is that this is a political deal, not a business deal - by buying WBD, the Ellisons add CNN to a portfolio that already includes CBS and TikTok, and shaping coverage matters more to them than the stock price.
- CodesInChaos 8mo agoIf that's the case, shouldn't they have been able to work out a much cheaper deal with Netflix where they get CNN and Netflix everything else?
- jandrese 8mo agoProbably hard to cut a deal like this with someone you are actively engaged in a hostile bidding war with.
- jasonfarnon 8mo agoI think this was actually on the table and rejected. Which is why the "control the narrative" argument is fishy, or at least missing something. And now having just defended Oracle I have to go take a shower.
- ajb 8mo agoHe's probably talking about this: https://www.972mag.com/ellisons-paramount-tiktok-israel-media-empire/ https://www.972mag.com/ellisons-paramount-tiktok-israel-medi...
- samrus 8mo agoElaborate please. This is the place for insiders to inform others
- bdangubic 8mo agoAfter this merger, how many MSM outlets (including social media too) will not be in control by right wing billionaire nutcases? It is like when people for months discussed how much value X lost after Musk bought it (it was the greatest single investment made by any human ever)
- popalchemist 8mo agoIt was an elaborate scam between Trump and his billionaire buddy (and contributor) Ellison to make money in various ways (both the acquisition as well as driving down shares in Netflix so Trump could buy the dip - as was reported earlier in the week) as well as to MAGA-ify the entertainment industry further. It's all a grift.