Share ofParamountGlobal hit a milestone today, and not a good one.
Its the media industry the streaming wars, linear woes but also some self-inflicted wounds.
Paramount had a chance at different times to sell both Showtime and BET for a nice cash infusion.
Shari RedstoneSean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
The shares were above $16 at the height of merger speculation last fall.
She surely had her reasons but it was so messy.
But the drama of the last six months has left Wall Streeters frustrated and considering the options.
and other may emerge for a transaction that would be a simple change in control.
The second step was a merger of Skydance and Paramount.
Another was legal liability since shareholders had threatened to sue Redstone if the deal went through.
There may have other considerations.
The current restrictive regulatory regime has hovered over all aspects of the deal.
Alan Gould of Loop Capital in a report last week described Paramount now.
He has a sell rating on the stock and a price target of $8.
We assume PARA intensifies its focus to generate cash.
At the annual meeting the tri-CEOs announced a $500M cost-cutting initiative.
The company will license more content to raise cash.
We would not be surprised to see BET put up for sale again.
The best deal for the company, he and others think, is Warner Bros.
Discovery a possibility flamed up briefly last year before CEO David Zaslav stood down.
Nothing that WBD stock is even lower than Paramounts, trading at about $7.13 now.
