Media titan
A play for Paramount
Good morning, cinematic creatives. This is your Stock Market Rundown for February 5th, 2024. Thanks for joining me for another week of financial follies. Let’s dig in:
TODAY’S TOP STORY: BYRON ALLEN’S HOLLYWOOD GAMBLE
“I’m not a businessman—I’m a business, man.” It’s a famous Jay-Z lyric, but it could be used to describe Byron Allen. He went from a career on the small screen to becoming a media mogul. Now, he’s angling for control of one of Hollywood’s most prestigious assets: Paramount.
He enjoyed a successful comedy career in the 80s, but Allen’s aspirations were bigger. As a kid, he’d looked up to tycoons like Henry Ford and Berry Gordy, founder of Motown, and dreamed of following in their footsteps.
His broadcast TV empire has made him one of America’s most prominent Black businessmen. Now, his $30 billion bid to buy Paramount Global could be his biggest deal ever, and add Star Trek and SpongeBob to his talent roster.
Some entertainment industry observers are skeptical that Allen has the financial backing to pull it off. But if he can close this deal, Allen could go from predicting rain on the Weather Channel, to making it rain in Hollywood.
SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
War, what is it good for? Defense company profits, apparently. US arms exports hit a record high in 2023 as conflict flared globally. If you need a rocket launcher, you may have to wait… they’re on back order.
Toyota remained the world’s top carmaker in 2023. Unsurprising, since their cars are tanks. The Corolla I drove in high school is probably now an Uber in Nairobi.
Pfizer doesn’t need a pandemic to turn a profit—the company just reported an earnings beat. Apparently, Paxlovid is still a more effective treatment for COVID than chicken soup and Vitamin C.
The brainiacs at the International Monetary Fund say they’re confident that the global economy is coming in for a “soft landing”. Every time I hear the phrase “soft landing” I think about landing face-first in the plastic ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese in 1990… it wasn’t as soft as it looked.
Until next time, esteemed partners; looking forward to tomorrow morning’s rendezvous. Yours in capitalism, The Axe