Morgan Stanley: Last News

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel ruled out any major stock deal right how and indicated reluctance to increase debt, both at a time when the UFC’s main rival, WWE, is up for sale.

Spotify CFO Paul Vogel said the company’s decision several weeks ago to cut 6% of its global workforce was a “a real positive” in terms of the company being willing to take a hard look at its operations and “evolve.”

Showtime has been going through downsizing and recalibration since the November ouster of longtime CEO David Nevins and the premium network’s inclusion in Paramount Media Networks President Chris McCarthy’s portfolio. There have been layoffs, series cancellations and an executive restructuring as McCarthy articulated the plans for the network, which will soon be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime. They include multiple TV universes built around some of Showtime’s biggest series, including multiple Dexter and Billions offshoots.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Never fear, genre fans: Warner Bros. Discovery is intent on mining as much of its tentpole Warner Bros. IP as possible in the near future, whether that be through its upcoming revamped DC Universe, the newly announced “The Lord of the Rings” movies, or more projects based on J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” franchise amid the success of video game “Hogwarts Legacy.” “DC is an enormous opportunity and two important building blocks are in place now with the leadership team, Peter [Safran] and James [Gunn], and James has been breathing comics for as long as he’s been alive, essentially,” Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during a panel at Morgan Stanley’s investor conference Wednesday. “A great creative leader here. And the second building block that is in place is the one-company approach, because I think you can only manage a franchise if everything is coordinated and the team is working together extremely well. There’s an enormous level of collaboration and joint decision making around what should work hand in hand across the franchise.”

Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the media giant would of course consider alternative proposals for its stake in Hulu but they’d have to top its longstanding agreement to sell its remaining stake in the streamer to Disney next year.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Though Showtime is being rebranded into Paramount+ With Showtime, Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish says the Showtime brand is alive and well and more projects based on the cable channel’s most iconic series, including “Ray Donovan,” are in the pipeline for the integrated platform. “We’re not just doing that streaming, we’re doing that linear as well,” Bakish said during a Morgan Stanley-hosted investor conference. “So come sometime this year, when you turn on Showtime linear, it’s going to be Paramount+ With Showtime. And it’s what I call a win-win-win. It’s a win for consumers, because the product is going to be fundamentally better than Showtime. You’re going to get ‘1923’ on it, you’ll get ‘Tulsa King,’ as part of your Showtime subscription. It’s just going to be a bigger, broader product. We fundamentally believe in a broad thesis. So that will work at the consumer level and as part of that, we’re leaning into the Showtime franchises. So you could think about the slate as smaller, which will be less expensive, but also really giving the people what they want — which is more Showtime, maybe more ‘Dexter,’ maybe more ‘Ray Donovan,’ and really leaning into that. And we have some exciting plans there.”

Elon Musk prodded advertisers “to use Twitter yourselves, and believe what you see on Twitter, not what you read in the newspapers.”

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Nexstar is still dark on internet streamer FuboTV on Tuesday, the TV station group giant’s president and chief operating officer explained why. “We are in a dispute with CBS right now over the Fubo situation,” Tom Carter said during a Morgan Stanley-hosted investor conference. “But keep in mind that virtual MVPDs contribute less than 10% of our distribution revenue and our distribution revenue is about half of our total revenue and Fubo is the smallest vMVPD we deal with. So we’re talking about a relatively minor amount of money, quite honestly, to both us and CBS. So it’s kind of easy to pick Fubo as a fight to have.” Nexstar executive vice president and chief financial officer Lee Ann Gliha noted: “We view this as a CBS-only issues and it’s just driven by the specific issues that surround the CBS situation.”

Since she was 11, Bravo cameras were rolling in Avery Singer's home as her mom, Ramona, famously starred on the Real Housewives of New York. Despite the leg up,  the now 27-year-old was adamant about not riding 'off my mom's coattails' and carving her own path to success.A natural born entrepreneur, Avery exclusively sat down with DailyMail.com to dish about the launch of her first company, BachBoss, a bespoke bachelorette and bachelor party planning service.Meanwhile, Ramona - who has 'never been happier' since stepping away from the Housewives - gushed about her only child's success and discussed what is next for her after 13 dramatic seasons on TV.

Kim Kardashian is trying to keep the focus on her kids amid Kanye West‘s string of controversies.

Adidas is moving forward with selling Yeezy product designs — just not under Kanye West‘s brand name.

Paramount Global and Walmart have reached a streaming bundle deal that will see Paramount+ offered at no charge to subscribers of 2-year-old loyalty program Walmart+.

Andrew Wallenstein President and Chief Media AnalystThe upstart sports brand Overtime announced a Series D round of funding to the tune of $100 million, with Liberty Media Corp. joining its long roster of investors.In an interview for the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Dan Porter, CEO and founder of Overtime, pledged to grow the company’s existing leagues in basketball and football.

The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) announced its special achievement honorees for the 4th Annual AAFCA TV Honors who will be celebrated at an invitation-only, in-person luncheon on August 20th at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles. 

That in turn will have a major ripple effect across Hollywood’s creative community and the global content production ecosystem, which in recent years has been primed to operate in an environment of seemingly endless demand for new TV shows and movies. Morgan Stanley this month projected the rate of content spending by the 14 largest players in global media to expand at a 13% compound annual growth rate from 2022-25, when the tally will top $200 billion.

Elon Musk has unveiled a group of investors that together will provide about $7.14 billion in financing commitments for his pending $44-billion acquisition of Twitter, and said he’s talking to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey about sticking around as part owner.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorUPDATED: Elon Musk this week reaped $8.4 billion in a series of stock sales of Tesla, the electric car company he heads, evidently as part of raising money for his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.Musk, , the world’s richest individual, sold more than 4.4 million shares of Tesla on April 26 and 27 at various prices of about $870-$1,000 per share, according to SEC insider transaction filings Thursday. Additional disclosures Friday showed that he sold another 5.4 million Telsa shares on April 28.

Twitter and Elon Musk are said to be close to clinching a sale of the social media giant to Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO came through with finanancing late last week.

Naman Ramachandran The 11-member Twitter board met on Sunday to consider billionaire Elon Musk’s $43 billion takeover offer for the social media company, according to reports.Musk “wooed many of the social media company’s shareholders with financing details on his $43 billion acquisition offer,” according to Reuters which quoted people familiar with the matter. “The company’s decision to engage with Musk… does not mean that it will accept his $54.20 per share bid,” according to Reuters.

Elon Musk is serious about that offer.

Elon Musk has assembled financial commitments worth $46.5 billion to buy Twitter and said he is considering a tender offer – or going over management’s head to make his bid directly to shareholders — “but has not determined whether to do so at this time.”