John Malone, the cable pioneer, iconic investor, David Zaslav mentor and main shareholder of Warner Bros. Discovery mentioned crippling debt plagued the conglom post-merger but it surely’s slowly beginning to see some mild. At an occasion in New York, he opined on the current election, what he thinks the incoming administration’s high priorities ought to be, and media M&A — and in addition expressed a want to know extra about Elon Musk‘s thoughts.
“Sadly, Warner Bros. Discovery received in with numerous leverage once they mixed and they also needed to wrestle somewhat bit, utilizing numerous their vitality to drive down their debt,” he mentioned throughout a Q&A on the Paley Worldwide Summit in midtown. The Liberty Media chairman hardly ever seems in public however has been a fixture at this occasion, interviewed by his colleague Mike Fries, CEO of Liberty World.
They appeared nearly from, respectively, Denver and London. The 2 have a straightforward relationship and questions veered to the non-public. Fries requested, “Is there something you wish to study extra about subsequent 12 months, one thing you wish to dig deeper into, perceive higher?”
“How Elon Musk’s mind works,” Malone answered.
“That might take a while,” Fries responded.
The Tesla billionaire and proprietor of X, previously Twitter, has been ubiquitous all through the presidential marketing campaign supporting president elect Donald Trump, attending rallies and providing $1 million giveaways to voters in swing states.
On WBD, Malone mentioned, “I do imagine now they’re beginning to expertise what the unique concept was — “to take underexploited Warner Bros. programming content material, library content material, create a model, and distribute it globally.” Discovery has giant world footprint, and Max is within the midst of an aggressive world growth.
In a lightening spherical Malone was requested speedy fireplace what shares he likes.
He’s a purchaser of Comcast, Constitution, AT&T and all the massive tech firms. On Paramount, he mentioned, “Larry Ellison is among the smartest guys on the planet so I would speculatively personal some.” David Ellison’s Skydance is buying Paramount a deal anticipated to shut in 2025. He’s impartial on Disney, which “nonetheless has issues to resolve.” Netflix inventory is “in all probability somewhat overpriced available in the market so I wouldn’t be an proprietor of it, however I respect the hell out of it.”
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