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thewayneParamount, which now includes (or will soon include) Warner Brothers, HBO, CNN, and CBS, and who knows what else, is selling just under half of its Class B shares to the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. Class B shares are "Non-Voting", all of the Class A voting shares are held by the Ellisons. Larry Ellison was the co-founder of Oracle and his son is now the owner of this CBS/Paramount/Warner Bros mess.
So all is well. After all, those Arab states won't be able to vote and influence programming or editorial content! Excuse me while I retch. If they were to dump all that stock in one concerted move, it would be catastrophic to the stock. They will be an invisible hand influencing things. There are some interesting comments in the Ars Technica article about various ways this can play out, the most likely way is producer bias influencing 60 Minutes and CNN, and possibly leaving HBO's This Week Tonight With John Oliver alone as a fig leaf since that show is largely preaching to the converted.
It's also entirely possible that any or all of those three Arab states have managed to covertly purchase 0.6% stock on the sly, and when the sale goes through, will actually own 50.1% of the stock. No one knows.
Under normal rule enforcement, no single block of shares greater than 25% can be controlled by a single entity. But we're not in normal times. The FCC didn't even approve this as a board measure, where it would be open to public comment and a vote. They did it as an administrative issue, just *POOF* and they're good to go.
It's not in the least bit surprising as the Arab world has been shoveling money into the current administration at regular intervals. Trumpty-Dumpty wants to build resorts over there, so they're buying getting to buy influence over here.
Another fly in the mix is that Larry Ellison is on the hook for a huge revenue shortfall at Oracle over the massive Jupiter data centers that he's building to lease out to tenants who want AI resources. The construction is pretty slow because everyone's trying to build data centers, and there's a shortage of a number of key parts needed for them, only partly related to the servers themselves: we're talking about power transformers, generators, etc. Oracle just did another round of layoffs last week and their stock is taking a beating.
Such a lovely world.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/fcc-lets-paramount-sell-49-5-equity-stake-to-saudi-arabia-uae-and-qatar/
So all is well. After all, those Arab states won't be able to vote and influence programming or editorial content! Excuse me while I retch. If they were to dump all that stock in one concerted move, it would be catastrophic to the stock. They will be an invisible hand influencing things. There are some interesting comments in the Ars Technica article about various ways this can play out, the most likely way is producer bias influencing 60 Minutes and CNN, and possibly leaving HBO's This Week Tonight With John Oliver alone as a fig leaf since that show is largely preaching to the converted.
It's also entirely possible that any or all of those three Arab states have managed to covertly purchase 0.6% stock on the sly, and when the sale goes through, will actually own 50.1% of the stock. No one knows.
Under normal rule enforcement, no single block of shares greater than 25% can be controlled by a single entity. But we're not in normal times. The FCC didn't even approve this as a board measure, where it would be open to public comment and a vote. They did it as an administrative issue, just *POOF* and they're good to go.
It's not in the least bit surprising as the Arab world has been shoveling money into the current administration at regular intervals. Trumpty-Dumpty wants to build resorts over there, so they're buying getting to buy influence over here.
Another fly in the mix is that Larry Ellison is on the hook for a huge revenue shortfall at Oracle over the massive Jupiter data centers that he's building to lease out to tenants who want AI resources. The construction is pretty slow because everyone's trying to build data centers, and there's a shortage of a number of key parts needed for them, only partly related to the servers themselves: we're talking about power transformers, generators, etc. Oracle just did another round of layoffs last week and their stock is taking a beating.
Such a lovely world.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/09/fcc-lets-paramount-sell-49-5-equity-stake-to-saudi-arabia-uae-and-qatar/
no subject
Date: 2026-09-20 02:40 pm (UTC)WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon
no subject
Date: 2026-09-20 07:36 pm (UTC)And people don't remember that all of the 9/11 hijackers, save one, were Saudis. Or that Bin Salmon ordered the murder and dismemberment of an American reporter.
no subject
Date: 2026-09-20 11:13 pm (UTC)Not just the current Regime, they have all turned their backs on that information.
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
no subject
Date: 2026-09-20 03:17 pm (UTC)Since the Ellisons are involved, and the US now encourages (instead of bans) stock buy-backs, Paramount is oddly insulated from such manipulation. It'd be catastrophic to most other companies, of course.
no subject
Date: 2026-09-25 09:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-09-26 01:51 am (UTC)I can't stop thinking about all this law suits and decisions about 'overreaching regulations from agencies, and not from Congress'. Rules for thee and not for me? Which is on-brand for this administration.
no subject
Date: 2026-09-26 03:50 am (UTC)