Shari Redstone (official pic ViacomCBS)
David Zaslov and Shari Redstone may need a matchmaker to help them seal the deal. No, they are not thinking of marrying one another. But they have been considering a merger between Paramount, owned by Redstone, and Warner Bros, run by Zaslov.
David Zaslav met recently with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish about the possibility of a merger.
But the two companies’ stocks fell after the merger talk was first reported by Axios.
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Brandon Katz, an entertainment industry analyst for Parrot Analytics, told Observer that David Zaslav might be the reason. “While they do make some logistical business sense,” he said, “giving Zaslav even more control over a wider berth of entertainment assets will likely not result in an overly talent-friendly ecosystem.”
There is also the problem of PAramount’s $15 billion of debt.
On that Katz said, “A sense of reality is setting it that it is a subscale competitor at a time when there are extremely well resourced challengers in Big Tech and fellow legacy media companies that are frankly much bigger than Paramount.”
Shari Redstone is a prominent figure in the American media landscape, known for her role as the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) and president of National Amusements. Here’s a brief overview of her accomplishments and current situation:
Born to a Polish and Ukrainian Jewish family in Brooklyn, 63-year-old David Zaslov is President and Chief Executive Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, one of the world’s largest and most diverse media and entertainment companies with market leadership across all programming genres, including premium scripted television and movies, non-fiction series, international, animation, global sports and news. Mr. Zaslav spearheaded the transaction between AT&T’s WarnerMedia and Discovery, combining the companies’ media assets, in April 2022.
Previously, David Zaslav led Discovery since 2006. And before that, he worked at NBCUniversal, where he was instrumental in developing and launching CNBC and also played a role in the creation of MSNBC. He was previously an attorney with the New York firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae, and graduated with honors from Boston University School of Law.
