This article sure uses a lot of em dashes. I see 9 in the article body.
The worst acquisition in history, again
31–40 of 110 posts
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#32amazing 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”
> everyone knows why this purchase was made you should say what you're talking about because I for one have no idea.
The 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.
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
> everyone knows why this purchase was made you should say what you're talking about because I for one have no idea.
I 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.
Even if that is indeed the motive, the article is useful in showing how from a financial perspective this is bad deal for Paramount.
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Netflix pays like a Big Tech company, is valued like a Big Tech company and was part of FAANG. 10 years ago the streaming tech they had was fairly high tech, even if it's now pretty standard. So they're considered Big Tech for historical reason
There was no world that Netflix should have been part of FANG (notice the missing A as original conceived by Cramer). At the time it was coined, Apple was already the most valuable company. But was left out as was Microsoft
It was the companies that were performing well in the stock market. Microsoft and Apple are much older and didn’t have the growth those did.
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#35amazing 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”
Elaborate please. This is the place for insiders to inform others
After 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)
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#36> With his new toy having a leverage ratio north of 6x, David Ellison has promised $6 billion in “synergies” within three years. (Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos put the figure closer to $16 billion, after examining WBD’s books. What is it that these CEOs think they are seeing, that everyone else is missing? I can believe they have inflated egos, but they’re not totally crazy, right? My impression is that Netflix is fair…
Succession planning.
This appears to be Larry Ellison trying to manage succession for his kids. We'll probably see a second major acquisition like this for Megan (who tends to be more progressive leaning) [edit: I was right. Megan Ellison is making moves as well now [0]]
Larry would not be able to do something similar at Oracle today (definitely in the 2000s though), as by the 2010s operational control at Oracle increasingly shifted to operators like Catz, Hurd, and Kurian. It also would have led to bad blood à la the Murdochs.
One heir cultivating the right wing (David) and the other heir cultivating the progressive wing (Megan) buys a level of political impunity for the next generation that is hard to come by.
[0] - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/megan-el...
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#37amazing 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”
Elaborate please. This is the place for insiders to inform others
It 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.
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> everyone knows why this purchase was made you should say what you're talking about because I for one have no idea.
I 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.
didn’t think I had to actually explain it :)
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#39Something I've mulled about this acquisition is that it appears to be a form of succession planning by Larry Ellison for his kids David (Skydance) and Megan (Annapurna). Oracle was always an Ellison driven enterprise, but neither David nor Megan had much aptitude or interest in enterprise SaaS, and a newer generation of operators took the reigns at Oracle in the 2010s like Catz, Hurd, Scilia, Magouyrk, and even Kuria…
David is fairly good at Hollywood production. He's got a surprising number of blockbusters under his belt.
It remains to be seen whether his rightward turn is just pandering to Trump to get stuff done or if he's gone of the rails. If its the latter, the Paramount acquisition will likely be regarded as one of the biggest failures of all time.
Re: The worst acquisition in history, again
#40amazing 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”
> everyone knows why this purchase was made you should say what you're talking about because I for one have no idea.
He's probably talking about this: https://www.972mag.com/ellisons-paramount-tiktok-israel-medi...