media
People don’t understand that it’s expensive to be famous. Once you become famous, you’re forced to always have security and all these other things. It’s not an option. So all of a sudden you’ve got these huge overhead costs.
The Tao of Shemarya
Quality : Among subscribers, the perceived “quality” for Max is at 55 percent, the same as in January—even as all the other streamers dropped, and well above the 43 percent of Discovery+. So Max is benefitting from the HBO association, despite dropping the HBO brand from the name.
Max Lost the HBO Name But Kept the Brand Halo
someone, everyone, should check back on this to see whether or not this stands in a year or two. the logo for Max doesn't even look premium.
When we did Smartwater with Jennifer Aniston , that was the first time I saw an equity-cash combo deal, when Jennifer was a part owner of the company, which then sold to Coke [for $4.1 billion in cash].
The Tao of Shemarya
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.
Are You There, Aryeh? It’s Me, Shari…
i don't think Sumner would have wanted to sell the business at all, but maybe
Years ago, I was a modeling agent, and I thought, my gosh, brands would actually get a lot further if they used a celebrity versus a model because of the amount of impressions that a celebrity would garner . I left the agency, opened up my own company, and here I am 30 years later.
The Tao of Shemarya
this is a very brilliant, situation-specific “business transformation” / idea that lead to a very successful move for him
there are a million of these waiting to be discovered or already have been discovered by people with ideas but lacking the capital, time, or empowerment to go pursue them within organizations
i.e., the modeling agency he worked for itself
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 the... See more
Are You There, Aryeh? It’s Me, Shari…
it seems as though these are all brands that could be fucking incredible but are being manage-managed rather than brand-managed
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... See more
Are You There, Aryeh? It’s Me, Shari…
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.
Are You There, Aryeh? It’s Me, Shari…
publishing ain't so bad after all