Under the impressive leadership of Jonathan Karp , S&S generated revenue of $1.2 billion in the 12 months ending March 31 and operating income of $255 million, a margin of 21 percent. No wonder KKR wants the business.
Frankly, Paramount Global should also have known better than to try to sell the third largest book publisher to the industry’s biggest player. I’m sure the $2.2 billion purchase price—incredibly, nearly one quarter of Paramount’s now anemic $10.5 billion market value—must have been more than a little enticing, and therefore worth the risk, along wi... See more
I have a gut sense that a Paramount Global overseen by Sumner Redstone , instead of his daughter, Shari , would have reached a different conclusion. After all, what is now known as Paramount Global was built on Sumner’s litigation risk-reward calculus.
i don't think Sumner would have wanted to sell the business at all, but maybe
Let’s assume for a moment, though, that between the two sales, Paramount walks away with $4.5 billion in cash. Paramount has $13.5 billion of net debt, as of March 31. If Bakish decided to use the $4.5 billion in cash from the sales of S&S and BET to pay down that debt—always a good use of cash—Paramount would still have $9 billion in debt. On ... See more
Shari only owns 10% of the company, and that 10% first-class stock has 80% of the voting shares, which is wild. Back in the L*s M**nves days, they tried a “nuclear option” with Marty Lipton to provide a dividend to the second-class shares that didn't give money but instead granted votes, which would have the Redstone shares powerless. It never went through.