- Novo Nordisk (NOV TH) +5.9%
- Shares slumped 21% on Friday
- Direct Line (D1LN TH) +3.1%
- Aviva Agrees to Buy Direct Line in Deal Valued at 275P/Share
- VW (VOW3 TH) +2.5%
- VW Labor Deal a Welcome Step, But Jefferies Says It Misses Goals
- AstraZeneca (ZEG TH) +1.5%
- Astra’s Tagrisso Approved in EU for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancers
- UCB (UNC TH) +1.3%
- Handelsbanken (SVHH TH) +1.1%
- Investor AB (IVSD TH) +1.1%
- National Grid (NNGF TH) +1.1%
- Rio Tinto (RIO1 TH) +1%
- NIBE Industrier (NJB TH) -1.3%
- Lanxess (LXS TH) -1.3%
- Lotus Bakeries (7LB TH) -1.3%
- Ryanair (RY4C TH) -1.3%
- Unilever (UNVB TH) -1.4%
- Mowi (PND TH) -1.4%
- Zealand Pharma (22Z TH) -1.7%
- Prosus (1TY TH) -1.9%
- Reply (REJA TH) -2.7%
- EDP SA (EDP TH) -2.8%
- EDP Sells 90% Stake in Brazil Transmission Line
US equity futures rose, tracking the rebound in Asian stocks from last week’s selloff, as subdued inflation data rekindled expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts. The dollar steadied after a retreat. A gauge of Asian equities snapped a six-day decline, with benchmarks in South Korea and Taiwan rising more than 1%. US equity contract added 0.5% after the so-called core personal consumption expenditures price index increased at the slowest pace since May, spurring a 1.1% gain in the S&P 500 Index on Friday. European stock futures were little changed.
Monday’s moves offer investors some respite after a stream of robust US economic data saw the Fed scale back the number of cuts it anticipates in 2025. Overall sentiment remains cautious as investors brace for the prospect of sweeping global tariffs imposed by US President-elect Donald Trump, and as China continues to see a lackluster economic recovery. Australia’s 10-year bond yield fell nine basis points on Monday amid holiday-thinned trading, tracking a Friday rally in US peers driven by the PCE data. US Treasuries were steady in Asia trading.
A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar was little changed after sliding 0.5% on Friday. President Joe Biden signed funding legislation to keep the US government operating until mid-March, avoiding a year-end shutdown and kicking future spending decisions into Trump’s presidency.
A Bloomberg gauge of the dollar was little changed after sliding 0.5% on Friday. President Joe Biden signed funding legislation to keep the US government operating until mid-March, avoiding a year-end shutdown and kicking future spending decisions into Trump’s presidency.
In China, semiconductor and computing stocks gained after Premier Li Qiang urged more innovation and infrastructure development in these sectors. Broader equity benchmarks posted modest gains. Asian stocks are set for their first quarterly loss since September 2023 while a gauge of the region’s currencies fell to its lowest in more than two years last week. In corporate news, Singapore Post Ltd.’s shares plunged after the company fired several senior leaders following allegations related to its international e-commerce logistics parcels business. In Japan, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. are looking to finalize a merger agreement as soon as June after negotiations begin later Monday, Japanese media reported. Elsewhere, oil edged higher after a weekly drop, as traders gauged Trump’s threat to reimpose US control over the Panama Canal.
Nikkei Hang Seng CSI Shanghai Shenzen
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Macro :
- ECB Rate Cuts Will Continue Next Year, Vujcic Tells HRT1
- US Approves Possible $4.7b Foreign Military Sale to Egypt
- US Approves Possible $4.7b Foreign Military Sale to Egypt
- Schumer Says He’s ‘Confident’ the Senate Will Pass Stopgap
- Car Sales to Grow Modestly in 2025 as Global Output Falters
- Ukraine Unlocks $1.1 Billion Disbursement From IMF After Review
- France Will Select Green Hydrogen Projects for Govt Support
- Biden Mulls Tariff Break for Solar Modules From Mexico
Keep an eye on :
Keep an eye on :
- AIR FP : Carmat to Buy Back 2M Shrs From Airbus for Symbolic €1
- AAF LN : Airtel Africa Plans Second Share-Buyback Program
- ARM US : -1.7% in after hours Trilal vs QCOM
- AV/ LN : Aviva Agrees to Buy Direct Line in Deal Valued at 275P/Share
- BYW6 GY : BayWa Gets Long-Term Restructuring Financing Until 2027 End
- BYW6 GY : BayWa Gets Long-Term Restructuring Financing Until 2027 End
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- BNBP FP : ECB Fines BNP Paribas Fortis €10m for Allegedly Downplaying Risk
- BOO LN : Boohoo Completes Sale of London Office for £49.5M in Cash
- ALCAR FP : Carmat to Buy Back 2M Shrs From Airbus for Symbolic €1
- DNR IM : De Nora Unit Gets €31m Italy Funding for Gigafactory Project
- DLG LN : Aviva Agrees to Buy Direct Line in Deal Valued at 275P/Share
- ENG SM : Enagas Says It Got Favorable Tribunal Ruling, Peru to Pay $194m
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- GRF SM : Short Seller Gotham Asks Judge to Toss Grifols Defamation Suit
- ISP IM : Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Urges Govts to Stop Meddling in Deals: FT
- ITM LN : ITM Power Signed Contract to Supply 3 Neptune V Units
- SKD GY : Lilium Dismisses All Staff Before Rescue Deadline: Handelsblatt
- LLY US : Lilly’s Zepbound Approved for Sleep Apnea with Obesity
- MSTR US : Scaramucci Says Concern Over MicroStrategy’s Debt Is Overblown
- MOS US : Mosaic Raises Quarterly Dividend 4.8% to 22 cents/Shr
- NIO US : China’s Nio Launches $108,000 EV to Take on Porsche, Mercedes
- NOVOB DC : Novo Nordisk’s Alhemo Gets US FDA Approval for Hemophilia
- OR FP : L’Oreal in Talks to Buy Migros’ South Korean Cosmetic Unit: Rtrs
- PARA US : Paramount's Media Heiress Will Leave the Stage After Last Act in a Chaotic Drama -- WSJ
- PGC LN : Petrofac Agrees Restructuring for at Least $325M of New Funding
- PFE US : Pfizer Gets FDA OK for Braftovi Combo as First-Line Treatment
- QCOM US : *QUALCOMM WINS LICENSING FIGHT WITH ARM OVER CHIP DESIGNS
- RUM US : Rumble Receives $775m Investment From Tether; Shares Surge +36%
- SAN FP : Cytokinetics Rises as Sanofi Buys China Rights for Aficamten
- SAN FP : Sanofi Expands SK Bioscience Deal for Pneumococcal Vaccines
- SPM IM : *SAIPEM FULLY OPERATIONAL WITH STATE-OWNED COS. IN BRAZILIAN MKT
- 005930 KS : Samsung Gets Up to $4.745b in Direct Funding From Chips Act
- RWI LN : Renewi Says Macquarie Deadline for Firm Offer Is Now Jan. 23
- SBUX US : Starbucks Baristas From Three More US Cities Plan to Join Strike
- SBBB SS : SBB, Genova Sell Building Rights to Besqab for SEK194m
- STLA US : Stellantis Shelves 1,100 Layoffs at Ohio Plant: Automotive News
- SWEDA SS : Swedbank Sued by Pensions Agency for $250m (Dec. 20)
- SCMN SW : Swisscom Gets Clearance From Authorities to Buy Vodafone Italia
- TSLA US : Tesla recalls nearly 700,000 vehicles for a warning light issue
- TXN US : Texas Instruments Finalizes Chips Act Award, Gets $1.6 Billion
- TKO FP : French Asset Manager Tikehau Mulls Plan to Cut Jobs by 15%
- TIT IM : Italy’s Open Fiber Investors Agree on €3 Billion Financing Deal
- UBER US : Uber Investors Are Calling for More Transparency Into Driver Pay
- URW FP : Unibail Sells 80% Stake in Trinity Office Tower to Norges Bank
- VSAT US ; Viasat, Intuitive Machines Gain on NASA Near Space Pacts
- VOD LN : Swisscom Gets Clearance From Authorities to Buy Vodafone Italia
- VOW GY : Volkswagen Doesn’t See Impact on 2024 Outlook From Labor Pact
- VOW GY : VW Plans 35,000 ‘Socially Responsible’ Job Cuts Through 2030
- VU FP : VusionGroup Extends €1B Contract With Walmart US
>>> Up
* EVN Raised to Buy at Erste Group; PT 32.10 euros
>>> Down
* EVN Raised to Buy at Erste Group; PT 32.10 euros
>>> Down
* Bittium Cut to Reduce at Inderes; PT 7 euros
* Novo ADRs PT Cut to $105 from $155 at TD Cowen
* Novo ADRs PT Cut to $105 from $155 at TD Cowen
* Novo ADRs PT Cut to $105 from $156 at BMO
* Novo PT Cut to 800 kroner from 1,150 kroner at Intron Health
* SoftwareONE Cut to Sell at Research Partners; PT 5 Swiss francs
>>> Initiation
* Multitude PLC Rated New Accumulate at Inderes; PT 5.70 euros
>>> Call
* Axsome Shares Could Jump 30%-40% on Agitation Data, Mizuho Says
>>> Initiation
* Multitude PLC Rated New Accumulate at Inderes; PT 5.70 euros
>>> Call
* Axsome Shares Could Jump 30%-40% on Agitation Data, Mizuho Says
DAX:
- VW (VOW3 TH) +3.2%
- VW, Union Agree to Cut Capacity and Keep German Plants Open (2)
- VW Labor Deal a Welcome Step, But Jefferies Says It Misses Goals
- Siemens Healthineers (SHL TH) -1.2%
MDAX:
- Gerresheimer (GXI TH) +1.9%
- Lufthansa (LHA TH) +1.1%
- Lanxess (LXS TH) -1.4%
- Schott Pharma AG & Co KGaA (1SXP TH) -2.5%
SDAX:
- SMA Solar (S92 TH) +2.7%
- Borussia Dortmund (BVB TH) +2.2%
- JOST Werke SE (JST TH) -1.7%
Harland & Wolff sale will mean losses for creditors and suppliers, interim chair says
Russell Downs defends deal with Spain’s Navantia as best outcome possible to keep Titanic maker’s yards alive
The sale of storied UK shipbuilder Harland & Wolff to Spanish defence group Navantia will “regrettably” mean losses for creditors and suppliers when the deal is finalised in January, the company’s interim executive chair has said.
But Russell Downs, the bankruptcy and restructuring expert who took the helm in July, told the Financial Times that the deal was the best outcome possible to keep the Titanic maker’s four yards alive and protect 1,000 jobs.
“We tried very hard to get a deal that would work for all creditors,” said Downs in an interview. “We regrettably have to recognise we were not able to get all stakeholders to a position where they would get their own best outcome.”
Hobbled by losses and high interest payments on its debt, H&W’s parent company collapsed into administration in September.
The 163-year-old shipbuilder had been struggling to stay afloat since the UK’s new Labour government in July refused a request for a £200mn emergency loan guarantee as an inappropriate use of public funds.
H&W’s Wall Street lender, Riverstone Credit Partners, extended a $25mn emergency loan in July, on top of a previous $115mn facility. Suppliers to the company are believed to be owed tens of millions of pounds.
Thursday’s announcement of a deal for Navantia to buy the yards in Northern Ireland, England and Scotland included no financial details, including no mention of the price of the assets. H&W more than tripled its revenues in 2023 and halved operating losses to £24.7mn.
The central element of the deal was a UK government agreement to increase a £1.6bn contract to build three Royal Navy support vessels that Navantia secured in 2022 along with H&W — an uplift the Spanish group had been pushing for in talks.
Downs declined to comment on the price for the yards or say by how much the UK government had agreed to increase the Royal Navy contract.
Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, told MPs on Thursday that the UK had agreed “some changes on commercial terms to the overall value of that Fleet Solid Support contract” but said they were “relatively minor”. The UK’s Ministry of Defence declined to disclose the details “for reasons of commercial sensitivity”. Navantia also declined to comment.
Downs said his “delight” for the workers and yards at the outcome of months of “intense” negotiations was “of course contrasted by my disappointment for the uncertainty and losses this will create for creditors, especially suppliers who will be unsecured creditors”.
Riverstone declined to comment.
H&W’s collapse in September was its second in five years. Advisory firm Teneo was appointed administrator to wind up the “insolvent” company while Rothschild & Co assessed strategic options.
Some staff, including Allan Smith, H&W’s director of shipbuilding, have since resigned or left. Smith did not respond to a request for comment. The current workforce numbers about 1,000, meaning no job losses are expected in the sale.
Downs said there had never been any question of Navantia not buying all four yards.
“We worked diligently through an M&A process with Rothschild & Co prioritising seeking a new investor, then a sale of the legal entities and only very recently concluding the best outcome would be secured through an asset-based sale of the yards and workforce,” he said.
That meant a “pre-packed” sale by the administrators next month, Downs said, adding that the companies that run the yards would “ultimately cease to exist” and that a notice for each to enter administration had been filed.
While some approvals still needed to be finalised “I don’t see any real risk [to the sale going through],” he said.
Downs, who described his work as “almost done” and said he would be moving on once the sale went through, insisted it was the best deal available.
“I came into the business in July after the newly voted-in government made clear it would not risk taxpayers’ money in the group,” he said. “As such, we had to find a markets-based solution, and that’s where we have got to.”
Steve Ballmer, the Non-Investing Guru of Investing
The former CEO’s unconventional and hugely profitable strategy: own a lot of Microsoft
The ultrawealthy tend to follow a time-honored model of investing: diversifying.
Much like universities and pensions, the richest people on earth spread their money across stocks, bonds and a cadre of alternatives, such as private equity, hedge funds and real estate.
Or at least most of them do. There is one very glaring exception: Steve Ballmer.
The former Microsoft MSFT -0.10%decrease; red down pointing triangle chief executive has put nearly all his eggs in one basket and kept them there for years. Ballmer has virtually no exposure to alternative investments. Instead, he keeps more than 80% of his portfolio in Microsoft stock and the rest in stock index funds.
As the stock market has climbed to new heights and Microsoft has transformed into one of the best-performing stocks of the past decade, Ballmer’s investment strategy has proven incredibly effective.
“Microsoft’s outperformed just about every other asset I could have owned,” said Ballmer, Microsoft’s top individual shareholder, in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It’s a little hard to say that it hasn’t worked out.”
Ballmer, 68 years old, served as CEO from 2000 until stepping down in 2014, after coming under pressure for not moving fast enough to compete with Apple and Google in key consumer markets. During his tenure at Microsoft’s helm, the company’s stock price fell by about a third. When he left the company, Microsoft’s market capitalization was around $300 billion.
These days, powered by its cloud business and the company’s prescient bets on artificial intelligence, it is more than $3 trillion.
To put it another way, Microsoft has gained an average 28.8% annually, including dividends, over that rough time span. In that same time, the S&P 500 returned an average 12.9% a year, including dividends. Endowments of more than $1 billion gained an average 7.8% a year, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service.
Few have benefited more than Ballmer, who calls himself “a non-investor investor.” He now ranks ninth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index list of the world’s richest people, above even Warren Buffett, with an estimated net worth of more than $150 billion. This summer, he briefly surpassed his former boss Bill Gates, who gives regularly to his foundation in a mix of cash, Microsoft stock and other securities.
As simple as his investment philosophy is, it took Ballmer decades to implement. In the 1980s, he bet on individual stocks such as Colgate-Palmolive on the advice of CNBC’s Jim Cramer, a college buddy who was Ballmer’s financial adviser at Goldman Sachs. He then tried diversifying but, in part, found it difficult to identify money managers who consistently outperform. So he dumped most of his alternative investments.
His fortune now is parked almost exclusively in stock index funds—and Microsoft. (He declined to say how big his stake is.)
Connecting via Microsoft Teams from his office in Bellevue, Wash., Ballmer spoke with the Journal about how he manages his money.
WSJ: Can you walk us through your investment strategy?
Ballmer: I own an index fund. We moved it back to be just the U.S. and Europe. Keep it simple. Maybe we own Japan too. We’re mostly dialing out of private equity, but you can’t get out of that overnight. The only stock I really study still is Microsoft, because that’s still overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly the No. 1 thing that I own.
I like it. It’s simple. We’ve been very blessed financially. What I seek in this instance is not to have to spend a lot of time, anxiety, brain power in an area where we’re blessed enough if we make 7% because that’s the standard return on the S&P over the long run.
[My approach] partly was shaped by Warren Buffett, who argues most people should just buy an S&P index fund. At least for us [Ballmer and his wife, Connie], making an extra 0.7% compounded isn’t going to change our lives. At the end of the day, we’ll be able to give our kids all that we want to give them, whatever that winds up being. I make no comment on that. Everything else we do is just a balance between how much goes to philanthropy and how much goes to the government.
WSJ: I feel like I would be tempted to check Microsoft’s stock price every day. Do you do that?
Ballmer: Oh, I check it, you know, not infrequently. But not because it matters financially. The stock market is two things to people. One is—how am I doing financially? And the other is a little bit like studying the box score—did my team win yesterday?
WSJ: You mentioned the S&P 500. Is that literally the index you own? Or do you have a more bespoke bucket of products of different indexes?
Ballmer: If it’s not the S&P, it’s the Russell 2000 or some broad mirror of the market. We do a little bit of tax harvesting. You could read about that, if you like, on ProPublica. They have my tax return and wrote it up.
[ProPublica reported last year, based on a trove of leaked Internal Revenue Service data, that Ballmer and other billionaires use tax-loss harvesting strategies to reduce the taxes they pay. It estimated Ballmer benefited from at least $138 million in tax savings between 2014 and 2018 via trades Goldman Sachs made for him that violated the spirit, if not the letter, of a law prohibiting so-called wash sales.
The inquiries from ProPublica prompted Goldman to halt such trades, and the bank said at the time it had conducted a review and found a small percentage of tax-efficient trades it makes for clients were “inadvertently made in a manner inconsistent with our strategy.” Goldman also said it tries to provide investment advice “consistent with both the letter and the spirit” of relevant laws and regulations.
A Ballmer spokeswoman said in a statement, “Steve takes his responsibility to pay taxes very seriously and has always paid what he owes.”]
We did decide to not own oil and gas stocks anymore. That’s a decision we made in the last year or so as we’ve gotten more involved in climate. It’s not going to change the world of valuations for those stocks, but it feels more value consistent. So those would be the perturbations in what we do.
WSJ: Do you ever discuss your investment philosophy and strategy with other very wealthy people? Do your friends think you’re crazy?
Ballmer: Well, no, not at all, because it’s a little hard to say that it hasn’t worked out. I don’t know how anybody else has done, because everybody’s got their strategy, and it’s hard to peek inside their curtains.
In terms of a non-Microsoft piece, the indexes have done pretty well. And people say I’ve done well on my Clippers investment. (Ballmer bought the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers in 2014, after he stepped down from Microsoft.)
WSJ: You paid $2 billion for the Clippers. There are rankings that put the value of the team now around $4 billion or $5 billion.
Ballmer: Look, if it’s a double in 10 years, it’s basically an index fund. And oh, by the way, it’s really underperformed Microsoft. I’m not saying it’s a bad investment—don’t get me wrong. But again, compared to Microsoft—I mean, honestly, almost any investment compared to Microsoft just pales.
WSJ: Do you think there’s anything applicable in your investment strategy to an everyday investor?
Ballmer: I would say, ‘Keep it simple’—unless you’re really going to become an expert.
I always like to talk about [how] in business, you have what I’ll call zero-trick ponies, one-trick ponies and two-trick ponies. A zero-trick pony is a business that never gets to incredible scale. A one-trick pony is what you do when you get to scale one big idea—you milk it, you milk it, you milk it. Most tech companies are one-trick ponies. Cisco, great company, one-trick pony. Even Google, I might argue, is still a one-trick pony centered around advertising. Amazon, two-trick pony. Apple, two-trick pony. Microsoft, two-trick pony.
If you put that back in the investment context, you can’t necessarily believe that an investor who did one trick super well will necessarily do the next investment trick super well, at least by my mental model. I haven’t studied every investor in the world, and maybe there’s people who consistently are doing great. But as in operating businesses, finding multiple-trick ponies is really hard. Why should somebody who’s a casual investor believe they’re necessarily going to find the people who can do these amazing tricks?
WSJ: Do you think there’s any luck in how well you’ve done owning Microsoft stock and holding it?
Ballmer: If there’s anybody that will tell you all their success is because they were a genius, I’d say they should go look for the luck.
Look, we had luck in Microsoft’s success. Forget the stock price. I had luck, essentially, in getting to listen to the right people. But I also had luck in terms of my loyalty to the company and not wanting to be a seller as a leader of the business. It turned out to be a great investment thing, too.
Palantir and Anduril join forces with tech groups to bid for Pentagon contracts
Consortium likely to include Elon Musk’s SpaceX in move to grab a bigger slice of $850bn US defence budget
Palantir and Anduril, two of the largest US defence technology companies, are in talks with about a dozen competitors to form a consortium that will jointly bid for US government work in an effort to disrupt the country’s oligopoly of “prime” contractors.
The consortium is planning to announce as early as January that it has reached agreements with a number of tech groups. Companies in talks to join include Elon Musk’s SpaceX, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, autonomous shipbuilder Saronic, and artificial intelligence data group Scale AI, according to several people with knowledge of the matter.
“We are working together to provide a new generation of defence contractors,” said one person involved in developing the group.
The move comes as tech companies seek to grab a bigger slice of the US government’s huge $850bn defence budget from traditional prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing.
The consortium will bring together the heft of some of Silicon Valley’s most valuable companies and will leverage their products to provide a more efficient way of supplying the US government with cutting-edge defence and weapons capabilities, according to a second person involved.
It comes as defence tech start-ups have attracted record amounts of funding this year, as investors bet they will be among the winners of higher federal spending on national security, immigration and space exploration under Donald Trump’s incoming government.
Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and geopolitical tensions between the US and China have heightened the government’s reliance on tech companies developing advanced AI products that can be used for military purposes, and encouraged investors to the sector.
Palantir’s share price has skyrocketed by 300 per cent in the past year, giving the company a market capitalisation of $169bn — larger than Lockheed Martin. The data intelligence group was co-founded by tech investor Peter Thiel, who also provided the initial backing for Anduril, which launched in 2017 and was this year valued at $14bn.
Meanwhile, SpaceX was valued at $350bn this month, making it the world’s largest private start-up, and OpenAI has soared to a valuation of $157bn since it was founded in 2015.
Each of the companies has attempted to grab a slice of the government’s defence budget. While SpaceX and Palantir have won large public contracts going back two decades, some are newer to government procurement. OpenAI updated its terms of service this year to no longer explicitly prohibit the use of its AI tools for military purposes.
US defence procurement has long been criticised as slow and anti-competitive, favouring a small number of decades-old primes, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing. These vast conglomerates typically produce ships, tanks and aircraft that are costly and take years to design and manufacture.
Silicon Valley’s burgeoning defence industry has prioritised producing smaller, cheaper, autonomous weapons that they claim will better protect the US and its allies in a modern conflict.
One person involved in developing the consortium described it as “aligning industry” in order to “execute the technical priorities of the Department of Defense” and “solve critical software capability problems”.
Some tie-ups between the tech groups expected to be in the consortium have already been agreed and integration work will begin immediately.
Palantir’s “AI Platform”, which delivers cloud-based data processing, was this month integrated with Anduril’s autonomous software, “Lattice”, to deliver AI for national security purposes.
Similarly, Anduril combined its counter-drone defence systems with OpenAI’s advanced AI models to jointly work on US government contracts related to “aerial threats”.
A joint statement from Anduril and OpenAI about that partnership said it “aims to ensure that the US Department of Defense and intelligence community have access to the most advanced, effective, and safe AI-driven technologies available in the world”.
Anduril, OpenAI and Scale AI declined to comment on the development of the consortium. Palantir, SpaceX and Saronic did not respond to requests for comment.
Paramount’s Media Heiress Will Leave the Stage After Last Act in a Chaotic Drama
An $8 billion deal Shari Redstone struck with Skydance Media must go through the FCC next year; new owners seek over $2 billion in cost cuts
Paramount Global PARA 0.76%increase; green up pointing triangle boss Shari Redstone took a winding path to sell her family’s media empire. Along the way, a CEO was dethroned, multiple board members resigned and investors lashed out.
Now, the 70-year-old media heiress is preparing to hand the reins to a new owner in 2025—but she promises not to go away entirely, and neither will Paramount’s problems.
Redstone earlier this year struck an $8 billion deal with Hollywood production company Skydance Media that will reshape the entertainment landscape. She is selling National Amusements, the family company that owns movie theaters and through which she controls Paramount.
As part of the transaction, Skydance will merge with Paramount, gaining control of a collection of assets that include the iconic studio behind “The Godfather” and “Titanic,” CBS and cable networks like MTV.
Skydance Chief Executive Officer David Ellison will face a formidable task: Paramount shares are down about 26% this year as a growing Paramount+ streaming business hasn’t been enough to offset the accelerating decline of the company’s cable business, which took a $6 billion write-down in August. The landscape is shifting as more people abandon traditional TV; Comcast is spinning off nearly all its cable channels in 2025.
Ellison and his top lieutenant, former NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell, have explored how to catapult Paramount’s position in streaming. They are looking at integrating the company’s free, ad-supported Pluto service into Paramount+, people familiar with the situation said.
Paramount’s current management had explored streaming partnerships with a number of companies including Amazon, YouTube, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix, though nothing has come to fruition. One main sticking point with Warner has been which company would have control of any joint venture, according to people involved in the discussions. Ellison and Shell are seeking over $2 billion in cost cuts.
Redstone, daughter of the late media titan Sumner Redstone, was a reluctant seller, and shortly after the deal was signed, she was already tearfully telling associates that she had regrets about relinquishing her family’s business. She managed to secure some trappings of mogul life. Skydance and its investors agreed to take on National Amusements’ financial obligations and pay for the remainder of Redstone’s lease for her private jet, and will cover the expenses for her Central Park-area apartment in New York City for the next few years, according to people familiar with the situation.
Redstone’s relationship with Donald Trump may also come in handy as the next administration evaluates the Paramount-Skydance deal. The president-elect’s incoming nominee for Federal Communications Commission chairman, Brendan Carr, has said the agency could scrutinize whether CBS’s handling of a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris—which critics said was edited in misleading ways—violated standards that require broadcasters to act in the public interest. Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS, which has denied wrongdoing.
Redstone has told people close to her that she understands Trump’s frustration with CBS, even though she doesn’t support the lawsuit. She has gotten along well with Trump for years. He was supportive in the court battles that helped her gain control of Paramount several years ago, people familiar with the matter said, and the two still talk on occasion.
Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle and father of David Ellison, also has a longstanding relationship with Trump.
Dance partners
The final deal came after a will-they, won’t-they corporate drama for the ages. The negotiations, in which Skydance was code-named “Sparrow” and Paramount “Pluto,” stopped and restarted multiple times.
Exclusive talks with Skydance, whose credits include TV shows such as Amazon’s “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan” and movies like “Top Gun: Maverick,” started on April 3. Some Paramount investors balked at initial proposals that they said gave Redstone a sweeter deal than ordinary shareholders.
Meanwhile, Redstone and the Paramount board were losing faith in CEO Bob Bakish, who had voiced concerns about the Skydance deal and sought out alternatives. Some directors felt the long-range plans Bakish had presented to the board recently didn’t include enough cost-cutting and had overly optimistic growth projections, according to people familiar with the situation.
Certain board members approached George Cheeks, then the head of CBS, and two other top executives, studio chief Brian Robbins and cable networks chief Chris McCarthy, to get a sense of what the executives would do if they were running the company.
Later in April, Cheeks was getting off a plane in Las Vegas to see comedian Cedric the Entertainer perform when Redstone called to say Bakish was out. Meanwhile, merger talks with Skydance Media were stalling.
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Bakish’s fate on April 26. The company announced his exit days later, and named Cheeks, Robbins and McCarthy as co-CEOs.
‘The three amigos’
At that point, it seemed as if Redstone intended for Paramount to go it alone. Cheeks, Robbins and McCarthy’s initial plans called for the possibility of a streaming joint venture, cost cuts and a potential sale of Pluto, people close to the company said.
In the early going, staffers found the new arrangement inefficient and were confused about how to address the new leadership team, with the nickname “the three amigos” catching on. Officially, the trio was given the moniker of “Office of the CEO,” which was then changed to “Office of the co-CEOs.”
Skydance remained interested in Paramount, but it had competition. Apollo Global had sent a letter to Paramount expressing interest in buying the company for $26 billion. That offer looked compelling to many investors, compared with the math for Skydance, whose financials were revealed in a Journal report.
Eventually, Skydance sweetened its original offer. Under the new proposed terms, all nonvoting and voting shareholders would have an option to cash out at a premium. The talks accelerated, and the deal seemed to be nearing completion.
As the Paramount special board committee gathered on June 11 to consider the deal, Redstone was signaling to one board member that something was wrong, people familiar with the matter said. Minutes before the call, the special committee’s lawyer, Faiza Saeed, a partner with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, received an email from Redstone’s deal lawyer explaining that the parties had failed to find common ground on fundamental issues.
“As such we do not have an agreement on a deal with Skydance nor do we anticipate that we will find a path forward for this transaction,” the email said.
Redstone was still concerned about the legal risks from the deal as well as the financial haul for her family’s company, which she concluded was being watered down.
Almost immediately after the deal collapsed, Ellison wrote to Redstone and her son Tyler Korff, who had been working on the deal, acknowledging there were missteps on his side, according to people familiar with the exchange. The two sides quietly got back into negotiations, while the rest of the business world—including the Paramount board—thought the deal was dead.
Saeed, the attorney for Paramount’s special committee, received yet another unexpected email from Redstone’s side on July 2, this time to say that Redstone’s National Amusements had reached a deal with Skydance and it was now up to the board to finalize a merger of Paramount and Skydance.
‘I will never disappear’
To help pacify Paramount’s nonvoting investors, Skydance agreed to provide $4.5 billion that Paramount can use for an offer to buy out about 50% of nonvoting shares. Redstone got $1.75 billion for National Amusements.
Skydance’s Shell and Ellison are building out Paramount’s management team as they prepare to take control of the company. Former Netflix executive Cindy Holland is expected to oversee streaming, reporting to Ellison. Cheeks is expected to be head of TV, according to people familiar with the situation. Dana Goldberg, chief creative officer at Skydance, is expected to oversee the combined studio, and Robbins, one of the co-CEOs, is expected to depart. Bloomberg earlier reported some of the expected management changes.
Under the deal’s terms, Redstone and Korff could join the board of the combined company, but both have decided against it, according to people familiar with the situation.
Despite that, Redstone made it clear that even though she was selling the company, she wasn’t planning to go away completely.
“One thing I promised everybody in the company is I will never disappear in terms of being your advocate and in terms of helping you be who you need to be, who you want to be in this company,” Redstone said at Advertising Week New York in October, when addressing a controversy at CBS News.
Hollywood angels: Here are the celebrities who are also star VCs
Becoming a venture capitalist has become the latest status symbol in Hollywood.
Everyone these days, from Olivia Wilde to Emma Watson, is either launching a venture firm or is in the process of backing the next hottest company. Robinhood, Uber, and Klarna all have some glitzy names on their cap tables, paving the way for the rise of “Hollywood angels.”
For founders, having celebs on the cap table can bring a lot of buzz to the startup — and bonus points if the celeb knows what they are doing, too. Here are some of the top celebs investing and what they typically look to invest in. (This list will be updated periodically).
Snoop Dogg
The famous rapper and personality is a prolific angel investor and is also a founder of Casa Verde Capital, a firm focused on cannabis investments. As an angel investor, according to PitchBook, he’s backed companies such as Cameo, Reddit, Klarna, Robinhood, and the fintech MoonPay, alongside other celebs on this list. He’s made at least 26 investments, according to PitchBook. The managing partner of Casa Verde Capital is Karan Wadhera and the firm closed a $94 million Fund II in 2020.
Sara and Erin Foster
The Foster sisters are two of Hollywood’s most famous siblings, best known these days as the producers of the Kristen Bell Netflix show “Nobody Wants This.” They launched a venture firm in 2022 looking to raise $20 million to back consumer companies, and the fund has officially closed, their reps confirmed to us. They know the consumer area well: They already have a podcast, a clothing line, and a hit television show.
PitchBook shows the firm, which they run alongside business partner Phil Schwarz, has written at least six checks, including into companies like the diaper brand Kudos (alongside Gwyneth Paltrow) and the luxury boxed wine company Juliet.
As angel investors, the sisters have also invested in the alkaline water company ZenWTR. Sara is also an angel investor in the swimwear company Summersalt and the ear-piercing startup Rowan.
Kevin Hart
A few years ago, comedian Kevin Hart launched a venture firm, HartBeat Ventures, alongside Robert Roman, an investor with a background in financial management for entertainment and sports celebrities.
The firm was founded around 2021 with the mission to support minority and underrepresented founders. It received its first outside investment from J.P. Morgan as part of one of the bank’s initiatives to fund more firms led by women and people of color.
The firm has invested in at least 14 companies, according to PitchBook, including the art marketplace Masterworks, the 3D printing company Ready Player Me, and Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty lingerie line. Tashi Nakanishi and Walid Samaha are partners at the firm, according to LinkedIn, while Ron Everline serves as vice president.
HartBeat Ventures began raising its Fund I in 2022 with no target amount. As of January 2024, it has raised at least $28 million, according to an SEC filing from January. An October SEC filing also shows that HartBeat is trying to raise capital for what seems to be an SPV looking to invest in Aston Martin’s Formula One car racing team.
Paris Hilton
The famed socialite is also an angel investor, according to PitchBook. She has made investments through her company 11:11 Media, of which she is the CEO and co-founder. Her investments have included the crypto company MoonPay, the biotech company Colossal Biosciences, the community event platform AfterParty, and the podcast platform Fireside Chats.
The theme for her seems to be social platforms, biotechnology, and SaaS products that make consumer life easier. She’s made at least 22 investments, according to PitchBook, and happens to be married to Carter Reum, founder of well-known Los Angeles firm M13 Ventures, which has invested in companies such as ClassPass, Canvas, and Pinterest, according to its website.
Ashton Kutcher
Perhaps one of the most famed and notable celebrity VCs is Ashton Kutcher. He is the co-founder of two VC firms, A-Grade and Sound Ventures, both of which he started with Guy Oseary. Shortly after launching Sound, Effie Epstein joined as managing partner.
Sound Ventures, founded in 2015, looks to back software companies and has more than $1 billion in assets under management, according to PitchBook. It also invests out of thematic funds, and last year launched an AI Growth Thematic fund, which invested in companies such as Hugging Face, OpenAI, Anthropic, and World Labs. He told the audience at TechCrunch’s 2024 Disrupt that he’s backing competitors in AI because he thinks there’s room for multiple massive AI model companies. His other notable investments between A-Grade and Sound include Affirm, Airbnb, Airtable, Duolingo, and Uber.
Nas
The famed rapper Nas founded his firm QueensBridge Venture Partners back in 2014. It’s made more than 130 investments across various industries and has around $140 million in assets under management, according to PitchBook. Anand Murthy is a partner at the firm. The firm has invested in companies such as the luggage brand Away (alongside Jay-Z) and the bedding company Parachute, according to PitchBook.
As an angel investor, Nas has made more than 50 investments, according to PitchBook. He’s backed SeatGeek, Robinhood, Ring, Coinbase, and the fintech Mercury.
Gwyneth Paltrow
The Goop founder has made at least 24 investments as an angel investor, according to PitchBook. She, alongside Moj Mahdara, is also the co-founder of Kinship Ventures, which invests in consumer and wellness companies. The firm was looking to raise a $75 million VC fund, Axios reported last year, and has backed the crypto payment company MoonPay. According to other SEC filings, it seems Kinship Ventures also raised what seems to be an SPV to back OpenAI and the bitcoin mining company TeraWulf.
As an angel investor, Paltrow has invested in the diaper company Kudos, the hair company Crown Affair, the beauty e-commerce marketplace Thirteen Lune, and the beverage brand Olipop, alongside actress Priyanka Chopra, according to PitchBook. Actress Mindy Kaling, rapper Logic, and the Jonas Brothers, also backed Olipop.
Emma Watson
The actress has cut at least two angel investor checks, according to PitchBook. Investments include at least two companies, including the biomanufacturing company FabricNano, and Hertility Health. Watson is a well-regarded activist, especially when it comes to the environment and women’s rights. It’s no wonder, then, that her two angel investments are in companies that seek to make product manufacturing more sustainable and a women’s health platform.
Olivia Wilde
Actress and director Olivia Wilde teamed up with Neil Sirni, who led Roc Nation’s venture division Arrive, to launch the venture firm Proximity, Bloomberg reported in October. Wilde does not have a PitchBook profile just yet but Bloomberg reports that her new firm will focus on consumer and enterprise technology and has already cut a few checks, including into Pendulum Therapeutics.
Investor Jason Mack and artist Santigold, known for her song “L.E.S. Artistes,” are also partners at the firm, according to Bloomberg. SEC filings show that Proximity is raising two new SPV funds, including a $5 million health fund and another $10 million fund.
Jay-Z
The music mogul is an angel investor and co-founder of RocNation and of what is now MarcyPen Capital Partners, an investment firm stemming from the merger of Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners with Pendulum Holding’s investment arm Pendulum Opportunities.
Roc Nation has a venture arm called Arrive Opportunities Management, which was once managed by Neil Sirni, the investor now working with Olivia Wilde at Proximity. That venture arm has made at least 40 investments, according to PitchBook, backing companies such as Sweetgreen and Epic Games.
Before the merger, Marcy Venture Partners invested in several companies, such as Rihanna’s Fenty x Savage (making Rihanna one of the few Black women in the world to have a unicorn company) and the web3 company Spatial Labs. Charlie Hanna and Mason O’Hanlon are listed as investors at MarcyPen Capital Partners on PitchBook and LinkedIn.
Furthermore, as an angel investor, Jay-Z has made some notable investments — at least 27, according to PitchBook — into companies like Oatly, Flowhub, Impossible Foods, and the luggage company Away.