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The union representing striking Boeing workers said Friday that members voted against Boeing’s latest contract offer.
The tentative five-year agreement was revealed on Wednesday, offering better wages.
The union said the offer did not have sufficient signing bonuses or a raise in benefits.

The Boeing Company at Paris Air Show 2025 in Le Bourget Airport.
Nicolas Economou | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Striking Boeing defense workers in Missouri voted Friday against the company’s latest offer of a modified contract deal, according to the union representing the workers.
More than 3,000 workers in the St. Louis area will remain on strike, the first walkout in almost three decades.

“Boeing’s modified offer did not include a sufficient signing bonus relative to what other Boeing workers have received, or a raise in 401(k) benefits,” a statement from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers read. “The democratic vote underscores the determination of approximately 3,200 IAM Union members to continue their stand together until their voices are heard.”
The union had said it reached a tentative five-year agreement with Boeing on Wednesday, with better wages and a signing bonus, and set a vote on the deal for Friday.
The deal that workers rejected included 45% average wage growth, among other things. The local chapter of the union, IAM 837, said it would bring the average wage from $75,000 to $109,000.
“Our members in St. Louis have once again shown that they will not settle for Boeing’s half-measures,” IAM International President Brian Bryant said in a statement. “Boeing must start listening to its employees and come back to the table with a meaningful offer that respects the sacrifices and skill of these workers.”
Boeing has said it is hiring more workers to replace those who are on strike to meet rising demand.

Boeing Air Dominance Vice President Dan Gillian said in a statement that no further talks are scheduled between Boeing and the striking workers, and that the company is “disappointed.”
“We’ve made clear the overall economic framework of our offer will not change, but we have consistently adjusted the offer based on employee and union feedback to better address their concerns,” Gillian said. “We will continue to execute our contingency plan, including hiring permanent replacement workers, as we maintain support for our customers.”
The striking workers mostly assemble and maintain F-15 fighter jets and missile systems, according to the union. The employees went on strike in early August and turned down a previous offer, which included 20% general wage increases and a $5,000 signing bonus, among other improvements.

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Shares of Pfizer and Moderna fell on Friday after a report that Trump administration health officials plan to link Covid vaccines to the deaths of 25 children. 
The report comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, moves to change immunization policy in the U.S.
The report said officials plan to include the claim in a presentation next week to a key vaccine panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and plays a key role in shot access.

Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine labels are seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Shares of Pfizer and Moderna fell on Friday after a report that Trump administration health officials plan to link Covid vaccines to the deaths of 25 children. 
The report from the Washington Post said officials plan to include the claim in a presentation next week to a key vaccine panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.That committee plays a critical role in determining vaccine access, as it reviews immunization data and makes recommendations on who is eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, among other duties.

But the presentation to that panel is not final, the Post reported.
“FDA and CDC staff routinely analyze VAERS and other safety monitoring data, and those reviews are being shared publicly through the established ACIP process,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement, referring to the panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“Until that is shared publicly, any this should be considered pure speculation,” the spokesperson added.
Pfizer’s stock fell more than 3% on Friday, while shares of Moderna dropped more than 7%. Novavax, which creates protein-based Covid shots, slid more than 4%.
The report comes as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moves to change vaccine policy in the U.S. He has dropped Covid shot recommendations for healthy kids and pregnant women and set new limits on the approval of new jabs against the virus.

In a statement, Moderna said the safety of its vaccine is “rigorously monitored” by the company, the FDA and regulators in more than 90 countries. Systems across the U.S., Australia, Canada and Europe have not identified “any new or undisclosed safety concerns in children or in pregnant women,” Moderna added.
Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that shots using mRNA technology, including Covid vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, are safe and effective, and serious side effects have happened in extremely rare cases.
Researchers have noted an elevated but rare risk of myocarditis, or inflamed heart muscle, in young men in particular. But there is no evidence that the vaccines in use now cause any other major safety risks, including pediatric deaths. Global surveillance data also continue to generally show that the benefits of Covid vaccination outweigh the risks in pediatric populations.
The Washington Post said the claim appears to be based on information submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which monitors the safety of shots approved or authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The system contains unverified reports of side effects, including from patients, doctors and pharmacists.
Only scientists and public health officials can determine, after thorough investigation, whether a vaccine caused or contributed to a side effect submitted to the system, according to the CDC website.
Last week, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told CNN the agency is conducting an “intense investigation” into whether Covid shots have caused deaths in children. He did not share specific data linking pediatric deaths to the vaccine, but pointed to self-reported incidents in the safety system database. 
The FDA plans to release a report in the coming weeks, Makary added.
“We do know at the FDA, because we’ve been looking into the [vaccine safety] database of self reports, that there have been children who have died from the Covid vaccine,” Makary told CNN.
During a Senate hearing last week, Kennedy said he supports a statement made by a newly appointed member of a key government vaccine panel that mRNA vaccines pose a dangerous risk to people. More

Luxury furniture retailer RH reported significant tariff hits and said it could face more uncertainty with President Donald Trump’s threatened furniture duties.
The company significantly missed Wall Street revenue estimates.
CEO Gary Friedman wrote in a letter to shareholders that despite the uncertainty, he believes the company is well positioned.

Shares of RH fell slightly Friday after the luxury furniture retailer significantly missed revenue expectations in its fiscal second-quarter earnings report and slashed its full-year revenue outlook.
The chain said Thursday that it will take another $30 million hit to its forecast because of tariffs, even though the retailer stood by its full-year projection three months ago in its fiscal first-quarter earnings report.

It now sees full-year revenue up 9% to 11%, compared with a prior outlook of 10% to 13%, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margins of 19% to 20% compared with previous estimates of 20% to 21%.
RH reported revenue of $899 million compared with Wall Street estimates of $905 million. The company also delayed the introduction of its Fall Interiors Sourcebook by roughly two months as it waited to finalize pricing depending on tariff announcements.
“We now expect approximately $40 million in revenues to shift out of Q3 and into Q4 and Q1 2026,” CEO Gary Friedman wrote in a letter to shareholders.

Gary Friedman, CEO, Restoration Hardware
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

The company is also facing uncertainty as President Donald Trump has threatened to put new tariffs on imported furniture.
In late August, the president said his administration was conducting a 50-day investigation to establish a yet-to-be-determined tariff rate on imported furniture. The move is meant to “bring the furniture business back” to the U.S., Trump added at the time.

“Just when you might have thought the tariff conversation was complete, the announcement of a new furniture investigation and the possibility for additional furniture tariffs, on top of existing furniture tariffs, and incremental steel and aluminum tariffs were introduced with the goal of returning furniture manufacturing back to America,” Friedman wrote. “We believe most in our industry hope that this investigation surfaces the difficulty of that task, as current manufacturing for high quality wood or metal furniture does not exist at scale in America.”
RH’s fiscal second-quarter earnings report, including its significant global tariffs hit, did not include any estimates of what changes the company might see if Trump follows through with the furniture tariff. The company is continuing to shift operations out of China and searching for alternatives to its India manufacturing.
“While there remains uncertainty until tariff investigations are complete, we have proven we are well positioned to compete favorably in any market condition,” Friedman wrote.

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Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are both preparing to launch obesity pills in the U.S. next year.
Lilly expects results from a head-to-head trial of its pill orforglipron versus Novo’s oral semaglutide in the coming months, said Lilly’s Chief Scientific Officer Dan Skovronsky.
Pills are expected to capture about 20% of the $80 billion obesity GLP-1 drug market by 2030, according to analyst estimates from Evaluate.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are preparing to take their rivalry to the next frontier of weight-loss medications: pills.
Both companies expect to launch oral obesity drugs in the U.S. next year, once regulators approve them. Daily pills could introduce more people to GLP-1s, the class of medicine that’s best known for weekly shots.

But after Lilly’s pill produced less weight loss than analysts had expected in a recent late-stage trial, it raised new questions about how widely the oral drugs will be adopted and which rival company will dominate the space.
Doctors will get a closer look at how Lilly and Novo’s pills compare in the coming months when Lilly releases the results of a head-to-head trial of the two, Lilly’s Chief Scientific Officer Dan Skovronsky said in an exclusive interview with CNBC. The study’s main objective is to measure how much the pills can reduce blood sugar levels in people with Type 2 diabetes, but it will also gauge weight loss.
“We wouldn’t have undertaken this head-to-head phase three randomized control trial unless we had a lot of confidence that orforglipron would fare well in comparison to oral semaglutide,” Skovronsky said.

Nikos Pekiaridis | Nurphoto | Getty Images

He cautioned against making comparisons across trials that didn’t directly compare the drugs, where Novo’s pill looks more effective and led to fewer discontinuations. Meanwhile, Novo’s Chief Scientific Officer Martin Holst Lange in a separate interview said the data speak for themselves.
Novo’s forthcoming obesity pill is an oral version of its weekly shot Wegovy; Lilly’s pill is a new drug called orforglipron that’s different from its shot Zepbound. Lilly’s shot is the gold standard in terms of efficacy, Skovronsky said. It can help people lose more than 20% of their body weight.

Neither Novo’s pill nor Lilly’s oral drug are as effective as Zepbound. At the highest dose, orforglipron has produced about 12% weight loss, while oral semaglutide has led to about 17%. That raises the question of how many people will opt for a pill if it means less weight loss.
Even so, Wall Street expects pills to make major inroads in the coming years. Analysts see oral drugs representing about 20% of the estimated $80 billion market for GLP-1 obesity drugs in 2030, according to data from Evaluate.

The logos of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk, maker of the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss treatments Ozempic and Wegovy is seen outside theri building as the company presents the annual report at Novo Nordisk in Bagsvaerd, Denmark, on February 5, 2025.
Mads Claus Rasmussen | Afp | Getty Images

Skovronsky thinks that pills could eventually become the primary way that obesity is treated around the world, and that oral drugs could have a larger market share than injectables. He said most patients are more concerned about other factors like supply and convenience than how much weight they can lose, and he thinks orforglipron has the edge.
The treatment is a small molecule drug like most pills people know. It can be manufactured more easily than peptides, like the shots and Novo’s pill. And it doesn’t come with the food and water restrictions that come with Novo’s oral option, which requires people wait 30 minutes after taking the drug to eat and drink.
“When I look at the pills, orforglipron has no food effect, it’s a small molecule, so the manufacturing should be easier,” said BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman. “But with new management at Novo Nordisk, I think [new Chief Executive Officer] Mike Doustdar is not going to just take this and be complacent about it. He’s going to lean in and ensure that this launch is successful.”
After seeing the results from Lilly’s obesity pill trial, Seigerman moved some of his market share estimate from orforglipron to oral semaglutide. Analysts cut their 2032 estimates for orforglipron by an average of about $4.5 billion between May and September, according to Evaluate. They now see sales of $14.56 billion that year.
Skovronsky said it’s harder to predict the market dynamics than the science.
“We did a good job predicting the science,” he said. “We said we’d make an oral that had safety, tolerability and efficacy that was similar to injectable GLP-1s. We did that. The science parts played out. Let’s see how the market plays out.” More

With more than $12 billion under management, Realm is a multifamily office investment platform specializing in commercial real estate.
The typical family using Realm has about $200 million in investable assets.
CEO Travis King tells CNBC about his favorite real estate plays, what he’s staying away from and how he views the high-interest rate environment.

A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
The family offices of high-net-worth investors are increasingly pouring their money into alternatives, and real estate is high on their list. For some, instead of going it alone, they’re joining forces in multifamily offices.

The multifamily office model lets these investment arms of wealthy families pool resources, share expertise and unlock bigger deals. With more than $12 billion under management, Realm is a multifamily office investment platform specializing in commercial real estate. The typical family using Realm has about $200 million in investable assets.
CNBC spoke with its CEO, Travis King. Here are some highlights from the conversation, edited for length and clarity: 

Property Play: Why go multifamily?

Travis King: We are better investors collectively than we would be individually. So what that means is we’re combining not only capital, but also our collective trusted relationships and industry knowledge and geographic knowledge to find and execute better investment decisions.
You’ve seen big allocations amongst the institutions. They’ve all grown their real estate allocations, in some cases, from low single digits to, in some cases,10% or more allocation-wise. You still don’t see that with a lot of the family offices, although there’s a strong desire to do so. 

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So I think that next horizon is going to be finding ways to access direct real estate with these families that will allow them to be able to diversify a little bit more and enjoy some of those benefits of real estate that have been a little bit elusive unless you wanted to actually buy that real estate yourself, which can tend to be very time intensive, for sure, and, a lot of times, requires a pretty large dedicated staff.

PP: How do you play real estate?

TK: Real estate is evolving, right? There’s never one thing that you want to be focused on in real estate. I think that’s part of what gives us a leg up. … You’ve heard the adage ‘location, location, location,’ and that’s true. I think that continues to be a very true adage. What we find is that we’re unique in that we move across property type and across geography. So given the scale that we have as an organization with, I think collectively, north of $12 billion in investable assets amongst these families that we work with, we have the ability to see a lot of different deal flow in a lot of different areas. 
In real estate, there’s a macro-cycle, and that cycle is always very important. You don’t want to swim against the tide. You also don’t want to, you know, try to fight the cycle. But there’s micro-cycles that happen in different geographies and within different property types, so that’s a key thing to consider.

PP: So of the many CRE sectors, what’s your fave?

TK: If you look at this point in time, what we think is interesting, you’ll start with office. I think in a lot of areas, we’re starting to see office really be in an area where we think that pricing has kind of bottomed. And you know that because when we start looking at some of these investment decisions — we’re looking at one right now in Northern California — it becomes less of, ‘Hey, would we like this if it were just a little bit cheaper?’ And it starts to get to the point where that’s not really the question anymore. It really gets down to saying, ‘We know it’s cheap. It’s intrinsically cheap.’ In some cases, we’re buying things at 15% of replacement cost. 

Realm CEO Travis King
Courtesy of Realm

PP: What are you staying away from?

TK: What I try to stay away from are broad categories, right? Say, for example, like, well R&D or industrial is going to be over. These things cycle, and there’s going to be different points in time. So I think the market, by and large … they look at things and say, ‘OK, data centers, you know,  they’ve been over invested, and now there’s too much capital in data centers.’ We particularly were, we’re not really in data centers in a large way, because we focus on that lower middle market. 

PP: Isn’t everybody in data centers?

TK: Yeah, but it’s the big boys in data centers, right? I’m trying to find an angle where we have something that others don’t. If you look at the big boys that have got tens of billions of dollars in their fund to be able to invest, there’s a lot of dollars required to do the infrastructure in the data center. We really focus on, kind of $50 million deals and below, because we feel like we’ve got an edge there. So yes, everyone is in data centers, but it’s one of those things where a lot of people are saying, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of money chasing this. It might be late in the cycle.’ I tend to probably agree with that, but it’s also just outside of the realm of where we’re trying to invest.

PP: How does your business change if interest rates come down?

TK: I would say reducing interest rates helps real estate in most every regard. I think first and foremost, it’s going to help transaction volume. I think it just provides a wind to the sails of transactions, and it raises the value of all real estate. More

Half of family offices have invested in sports or would like to, according to a new survey by Goldman Sachs.
That said, investment firms of the ultra-wealthy expressed little interest in women’s sports and emerging leagues.
Many family offices are spreading their bets to capitalize on multiple revenue streams and hedge against inflation.

SEATTLE, WA – SEPTEMBER 07: George Kittle #85 of the San Francisco 49ers celebrates with fans and teammates after scoring a touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks during the game at Lumen Field on September 07, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
While ultra-wealthy families and their investment firms are investing in fewer startups, they are still clamoring for a piece of the action when it comes to sports. 

According to a new survey by Goldman Sachs, 25% of family offices have invested in sports or related assets like ticketing or arenas, and another quarter are interested in doing so.
Last week, Julia Koch, the widow of billionaire David Koch, and her family agreed to buy a minority stake in the NFL’s New York Giants, according to Bloomberg. In June, Guggenheim Partners CEO and billionaire Mark Walter reached a deal to buy a majority stake in the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers at a valuation of $10 billion. And a trio of Bay Area families, including venture capitalist Vinod Khosla’s, bought a 6% stake in the San Francisco 49ers in May.
However, while women’s leagues and emerging sports like pickleball have garnered more buzz, investor appetite hasn’t caught up, according to the bank’s survey. Only 19% of 245 family offices said they had invested in or are interested in investing in women’s established leagues, while 71% expressed interest in major men’s leagues. A smaller percentage (16%) indicated past investment or interest in women’s emerging leagues or men’s minor leagues.

There are some high-profile examples, with a cohort of billionaire investors securing three new WNBA team franchises in June. However, these investors are betting on future equity growth rather than cashflow for financial return, as previously reported by CNBC’s Alex Sherman.
Goldman Sachs’ Meena Flynn told Inside Wealth that family offices, which invest for the long term, can afford to be patient with team ownership, no matter what kind of sports they’re getting into.

“It really combines their interests from a passion perspective as well as long term value creation,” she said.

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Moreover, family offices see sports as hedges against inflation since they have multiple revenue sources such as streaming rights and ticketing, according to Flynn, Goldman Sachs’ co-head of global private wealth management.
Many major league owners are growing their sports empires by investing in other sports and related enterprises, such as Blackstone’s David Blitzer, the first person to own equity in all five major men’s U.S. sports leagues. This year alone, his family office Bolt Ventures has backed Fantasy Life, a sports betting media firm; Ballers, a chain of social clubs for racket sports; and club operator Padel Haus. More

David Ellison, the CEO and chairman of the newly minted Paramount Skydance, has tapped an investment bank to help prepare a takeout offer for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Warner Bros. Discovery has a massive library of major franchises including DC superheroes, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter.
The company also has the rights to broadcast games from the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and March Madness basketball along with the French Open and Nascar.

Paramount+ signage in the Times Square neighborhood of New York, US, on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images

David Ellison looks to be buying up a media empire.
The CEO and chairman of the newly minted Paramount Skydance has tapped an investment bank to help prepare a takeout offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic dealings.

Warner Bros. Discovery had yet to receive an offer as of Thursday, according to people familiar. However, shares of the company soared almost 30% Thursday afternoon, notching the stock’s best day of trading on record.
Representatives for Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Bringing Warner Bros. Discovery into the fold would add to Ellison’s growing list of franchise acquisitions and sports media rights. WBD, which announced in June it plans to separate into two entities, has a suite of desirable assets. Add those to Paramount’s collection of intellectual properties and Ellison could have a content behemoth on his hands.
“A bid for WBD would solidify the overlooked value of its portfolio of assets that was weighed down by its balance sheet,” Robert Fishman, analyst at MoffettNathanson, told CNBC Thursday.

A mountain of content

Already in house, Paramount boasts movies and television shows from franchises like Star Trek, Transformers, SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paw Patrol, Scream and Mission Impossible.

More recently, it has expanded its video game-based IP beyond Sonic the Hedgehog, which is a billion-dollar franchise in its own right, to snag the rights to make a Call of Duty theatrical film and the distribution rights to Legendary’s Street Fighter adaptation.
Warner Bros. Discovery has a massive library of major franchises including DC superheroes, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones and Harry Potter. It also has legacy cartoons like Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry. It is also the distributor of Legendary’s Dune franchise and Godzilla and King Kong films.
Last year, Warner Bros. was the second-highest grossing studio at the global box office and Paramount was the fifth-highest, according to data from Comscore.
In addition to bolstering Paramount’s theatrical slate, Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service HBO Max counts more than 125 million subscribers as of the end of the second quarter. Paramount+ currently has around 77 million streaming users.

Chasing ESPN

In the wake of the Paramount-Skydance merger, Ellison also secured a $7.7 billion, seven-year deal to make Paramount the exclusive U.S. home for TKO Group’s UFC mixed martial arts organization. The agreement means UFC will stop its pay-per-view model and events will be available directly to Paramount+ subscribers and, in some cases, on CBS.
Sports rights are scarce and only become available when previous deals expire. Apple is already expected to be the home of Formula 1, and Major League Baseball is waiting until its deals expire after the 2028 season to reorganize its media packages. That means that Paramount will have few other top-shelf sports assets to bid on and acquire in the mid-term.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Discovery has the rights to broadcast games from the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and March Madness basketball along with the French Open and Nascar.
A potential tie-up between Paramount Skydance and WBD would exponentially expand Paramount’s library of intellectual property and an arsenal of sports content that could help it compete with Disney’s ESPN. More

Paramount Skydance is working with an investment bank as it prepares an offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter.
Warner Bros. Discovery shares closed up more than 28% on Thursday, the stock’s best day ever. Shares of Paramount Skydance closed up 15%.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the recently merged Paramount Skydance was preparing a takeover bid for the entirety of WBD.

Paramount Skydance is working with an investment bank as it prepares an offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter.
Warner Bros. Discovery had yet to receive an offer as of Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic dealings. A bid could come as early as next week, CNBC’s David Faber reported Thursday.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery closed Thursday at $16.15, or up more than 28% — the stock’s best day ever. The company’s stock rose after the initial report from the the Wall Street Journal that the recently merged Paramount Skydance was preparing a takeover bid.
Representatives for Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Shares of Paramount Skydance closed up about 15%.
Warner Bros. Discovery recently announced plans to separate its global TV networks business from its streaming business and studios. The Journal reported Thursday the Paramount Skydance bid would be an all-cash offer for the entirety of WBD.
Earlier this week, WBD CEO David Zaslav said at an investor conference that the planned separation would likely be completed by April. The streaming and studio assets would be renamed Warner Bros., while the global TV networks business — which will own a suite of pay TV networks including TNT and CNN — will be Discovery Global.

While WBD executives said in June that each company would be “free and clear” to do deals following the split, a bid before the separation would have to be for the entire company, one of the people said.

Media moves

David Ellison, CEO of Skydance Media attends the 81st Annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton on Jan. 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.
Kevin Winter | The Hollywood Reporter | Getty Images

The media industry has been navigating a transformation as streaming has upended the pay TV bundle, a longtime cash cow for TV and entertainment companies.
A merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery would create a media behemoth with a huge portfolio of pay TV networks, a sprawling range of sports rights and two major film studios.
Paramount Skydance owns broadcast network CBS, as well as pay TV networks like BET, MTV and Nickelodeon, and streaming service Paramount+. Its film studio is known for movies like “The Godfather,” “Top Gun,” and “Forrest Gump.”
With the exception of a broadcast TV network, WBD has similar assets — a result of its own merger in 2022 between WarnerMedia and Discovery. The company owns networks like CNN and TNT, as well as HBO and streaming service HBO Max. Its Warner Bros. film studio also has a historic track record, and owns the intellectual property to franchises like “Harry Potter,” DC Comics and “The Lord of the Rings.”
Both companies have a long list of major sports rights, too, the marquee content for all traditional TV and streaming platforms. A merger would put the likes of the NFL, MLB, an array of college football and basketball, and other major sports under one roof.
Media executives and experts have expected consolidation could be coming to the industry.
Zaslav has said publicly for some time that media companies need to consolidate. During an earnings call in November, shortly after Donald Trump was elected as president, Zaslav said a new administration could usher in more dealmaking.
However, in recent months, some media companies have moved toward separation. Late last year, Comcast announced that its NBCUniversal would spin off its pay TV networks, which includes CNBC and MSNBC, into a separate, publicly traded entity. Months later, WBD announced it would make the same move.
Paramount Skydance is the result of an $8 billion merger that was announced last year and received regulatory approval in August to move forward after a lengthy delay.
The Federal Communications Commission cleared the way for the merger weeks after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to Trump to settle a lawsuit he filed against the company over the editing of an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
At the time of deal’s approval, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement that he welcomed “Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
The company is looking to cut more than $2 billion in costs, and layoffs are expected to continue. Last week, Paramount SKydance sent a memo to its employees saying they were expected to return to the office five days a week in the new year, or seek a buyout.
A lot has changed since the merger, which was backed by RedBird Capital Partners. The company has done a slew of deals under the leadership of David Ellison, son of Oracle founder and multibillionaire Larry Ellison, including acquiring the U.S. rights to TKO Group’s UFC for seven years, beginning in 2026.
On Wednesday, Larry Ellison became more than $100 billion richer after software company Oracle issued growth projections that dramatically lifted the company’s stock.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More