00:00Yeah, they showed them the money and they said yes. $31 a share, $110 billion total. The pay package vote
00:10is not binding. You know, it's one of those say on pays things that companies are required to do.
00:16If this company were continuing as a public company, then, you know, the board would take the, you know, that
00:21into consideration and next year's pay. But this this go round doesn't matter. They'll be gone. And David Sazloff will
00:29have his money.
00:30Right. We're looking at accelerating equity awards valued at more than 500 million and $335 million in potential tax reimbursements.
00:39So he makes out pretty well. So he always does. Chris, what does this mean for the thousands of Hollywood
00:47actors, screenwriters, directors and other workers in the industry who have come together to oppose this merger?
00:54They were appealing to regulators, to policymakers. I mean, do they still continue to try to press state attorneys general
01:02to do something about this?
01:04They can and they will. It's, you know, it's not a done deal overall. Certainly it is from the shareholder
01:11standpoint. It's a milestone in that regard. But there's still regulatory approvals that have to be done. And everyone's sort
01:18of anticipating lawsuits similar to what we've seen in Live Nation and other cases sort of opposing this deal. So
01:26yeah, quite still a lot of opposition.
01:27At the government level, right?
01:29It doesn't appear that that's the case. I mean, there's been no official sign off. You know, Paramount will say
01:36that they've gotten clearance essentially from the DOJ. But there's really been no official sign off in Washington.
01:42You know, the deal price is $31 a share. Stocks trading at $27.30 here. That feels like a big
01:49discount to me from an arbitrage perspective, given this deal is going to presumably close in a couple of months.
01:55So I guess, what do you think the uncertainty might be out there in the marketplace, Chris? Is it regulatory?
01:59Do we need to get a sign off from President Trump? And that can always be a risk? Is it
02:04some legal, maybe lawsuits or something? What do you think? Is there uncertainty?
02:08Yeah, I think all of the above. I mean, really, and we've really just seen a steady drumbeat. I mean,
02:13the Hollywood community has sort of been against it. But, you know, they had to shift. They had to go.
02:18They were opposed to Netflix. And then they sort of had to regather. And now they're opposed to Paramount.
02:22And so, but we've seen, you know, the list of celebrities signing petition against is growing. The number of events
02:30people like Cory Booker, the senator from New Jersey have held to sort of examine this deal and criticize this
02:36deal. So whether it all amounts to something that will stop the deal, still big question mark there. But there's
02:43certainly sort of growing opposition.
02:46So when does the companies, Paramount, Warner Brothers Discovery, when do they start doing some of the hard work of
02:53integrating? Or is that something they cannot do until the regulators have made clear that they're not opposing?
02:59Yeah, they really have to wait to close. We saw in that Nexstar-Techner deal where they jumped as soon
03:07as they got a clearance in Washington and then the lawsuit happens and now they're actually barred from integrating.
03:13So very awkward situation. I imagine the Warner Brothers Paramount folks are looking at that and saying, all right, well,
03:19we should probably make sure we're in the clear before we actually close this.
03:25Chris, you're based in LA. I'm sure you know a lot of these folks that work at these entertainment companies.
03:30How concerned are they just about LA as a creative community, as a Hollywood community?
03:36Because here in New Jersey, Netflix is building a huge production complex down at Fort Monmouth, the old army base,
03:44tore down everything at this huge army base and are building this gajillion dollar production facility.
03:49I mean, there's Vancouver, there's South Carolina, there's lots of places that are taking business away. What's the mood in
03:55LA creatively?
03:58Particularly gloomy. Yeah. And, you know, it's been that way. We've written about this for a couple of years now.
04:04You've had, you know, the flight to other locations to shoot.
04:08There's a big part of it. There's overall cutbacks in spending among big companies and the globalization of the business
04:14has really changed things.
04:15And then, you know, we've got AI as a threat. So jobs are definitely weak, particularly here in the capital
04:24of entertainment.
04:25And so the idea of this big merger, while David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount promises there'll be growth,
04:33everyone anticipates that it's going to be very difficult in the labor market.
04:37Thank you, thanks, everybody.
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