Paramount CEO: No Production Cuts, Streaming Demands Investment
"We have no intention to pull back on production," says Paramount CEO David Ellison, who adds combining streaming requires investing in content to achieve growth goals.
Paramount CEO: No Asset Sales if WBD Merger Proceeds
Paramount CEO David Ellison says no asset sales planned at this time if WBD deal goes through.
Paramount CEO's Forced Excitement Masks Warner Deal Hype
Paramount CEO David Ellison calls deal to acquire Warner, "a unique and thrilling moment." Alas he said it with the enthusiasm of a parking attendant telling you to head to the roof for a space. Pre-recordings never sound exciting.
Paramount Pledges 30 Films, 45‑day Window; HBO Stays Independent
Paramount CEO David Ellison commits to 30 theatrical movies and a 45-day window and says HBO will continue to have the resources and independence to "do what it does best."
Planning Trumps Strategy, Empowering Technocrats Over Strategists
Welcome to Chapter Two of the Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW/PI) book club. I am reprising the 37 pieces that were ranked highest by readers – and they make up one books-worth of content. The second is Why Planning over Strategy? https://t.co/L7EbtoalCF In...
Sarandos Calls Paramount’s Offer Irrational, Fueled
Netflix Boss Ted Sarandos Speaks Out After Losing Warner Bros. Bid: Paramount Offers Were ‘Irrational,’ Relied on Political Pressure Because it’s ‘Cheaper to Make Noise’ https://t.co/lSMiTSgKnA
CEOs Become Risk Chiefs, Blame AI, Term Spread Narrows
🆓 Sunday links: CEO as Chief Risk Officer, blaming AI for job cuts, and the shrinking term spread. https://t.co/4BDeewwVe5 chart: https://t.co/nJv6ecVuec https://t.co/rixP9PqbVA
Never Surprise Your Board with Bad News
good tips for leaders and their boards, from a leader who has weathered the ups and downs and been hardened tackling super hard problems. @cerebras is an incredible company that has endured and overcome all sorts of doubts along the...
CEOs Must Align, Not Operate: The Key to Scale
The CEO’s job isn’t to run the company. It’s to align it. Operations can be delegated. Alignment cannot. A CEO stuck in execution becomes an operator. A CEO who aligns vision, strategy, people, and incentives builds scale. Execution is the engine. Alignment is the steering wheel. Drive...
CNN Faces Moral Test Under MAGA‑Friendly Leadership
Will anyone at CNN take a principled stand as David Ellison reshapes the network to be more MAGA friendly? Or will everyone just go along with the new direction? Watch the full episode of Power Lines on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nWEG5jUrP2Q?si=H_0XcKiJMFeLe3fe
CEO Emphasizes Equity Focus; Weschler Handles 6% Portfolio
“At Berkshire, equity investments are fundamental to our capital allocation activities; responsibility ultimately resides with me as CEO. Ted Weschler manages about 6% of our investments, including a portion of the portfolio formerly overseen by Todd Combs…” - Greg Abel
Anthropic AI Shifts Focus to Lucrative Non‑US Government Deals
Prediction: @AnthropicAI may have lost the US government as a client, but will gain even more collectively-lucrative government contracts outside of the US.
David Ellison Secures $2.8B Warner Bros. Deal Over Netflix
Power, politics and a $2.8-billion payout: How Paramount's David Ellison topped Netflix to win Warner Bros. Discovery. @latimes https://t.co/6HgvA4tXeH
Markel Names Simon Wilson CEO Amid Productive Shift
Markel 2025 Shareholder Letter: "2025 was a year of productive change and recommitment in our largest business, Markel Insurance. Most notably, in March 2025, we promoted Simon Wilson to serve as CEO."
Paramount's Bold Move Beats Netflix, Secures Warner Bros.
‘David Ellison Scares the Shit Out of Me’: How Paramount Beat Out Netflix, Won Warner Bros. and Will Change Hollywood Forever https://t.co/Pt6DwlK7fc
Early Bets Win; Amazon’s Late Entry Costs Billions
Early positioning beats late capital every time. Amazon just invested $50 billion in OpenAI for 6 percent ownership and distribution rights. Microsoft invested $13.8 billion starting in 2019 and owns 23.5 percent with exclusive IP, revenue sharing, and API control locked through...
Efficiency Revolution: Companies Will Trim Workforce by Half
Could you operate your company with half the people? Jack Dorsey’s announcement yesterday, reducing Block’s headcount from 10,000 to 6,000, should provoke this question in every management team. The stock surged 24%. Dorsey’s memo framed it as inevitable : Within...
New CEO Bullish on Mobile, Convergence Takes Time
Jim Holanda, Cable One's new CEO, is bullish about mobile but warns that the operator's budding convergence strategy will take time to drive results. @Light_Reading https://t.co/aH0YccspLJ
AI Triggers Massive Layoffs, Stock Soars, Execs Profit
So Jack Dorsey fires 4,000 people from Block yesterday because AI made their positions obsolete. The market celebrated by pumping the stock 24%! Jack made $600 million in literally an hour. The reality is these lay offs are going to get worse. Learn now...
Amazon CEO Warns of Bleak 2026, Economists Concur
Amazon’s CEO has a scary prediction for 2026, and some economists think he is right (Starting with Peter Orszag and me) https://t.co/dkUBiqQG6C
Short‑seller Paper May Mark Software Bottom; CEOs Mimic Dorsey
The Citrini doom-paper could have marked the bottom for large-cap software, with increasing signs of it being a short-seller paid paper. And maybe software CEOs will slowly but surely follow the Jack Dorsey playbook. Lay off 40 percent of staff,...
Sarandos Missed Industry‑changing Deal, Netflix Still Ahead
I’d say yes overall, but arguments can be made to the opposite as well. In #TedSarandos case for instance, truth is that #Netflix didn’t need WB, it’s already miles ahead of everyone else even without WB. And he walks away with...
Small Teams Offer Growing Long-Term Advantages
the advantages of keeping a team - and company - small will continue to grow
Sarandos' White House Meeting Ends Warner Bros. Bid
BURNING QUESTION: What did Ted Sarandos learn in his White House meetings today that ended his bid for Warner Bros? @thewrap
Netflix's Bold Exit Strengthens Long-Term Value
Kudos to management for being willing to walk away. There will be plenty of opportunities over time to keep improving the customer value proposition and the long-term value of the business. This was the right decision by Netflix.
Joe Ferencz Passes CEO Role to Ricardo Briceno
After seven years, Joe Ferencz turns the CEO job over to Ricardo Briceno. breceno https://t.co/ZjwU1hqAQD
Company Slashes Workforce by Half, Offers Severance Benefits
we're making @blocks smaller today. here's my note to the company. #### today we're making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we're reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that...
Hire Demand Generation, Not Just Brand, for Growth
I was on a call with a CEO. "We are 100% Sales-driven. We have absolutely ZERO Marketing" I probed a bit more to understand. Turns out they hired a CMO once for a 8 month stint. All she wanted to...
CEO Exit Undermines Confidence in Trainline’s Long‑Term Vision
Trainline's CEO is jumping ship. Here's a snippet from what I wrote in my $TRN deep dive conclusion: "If Trainline were a founder-led business today, with a CEO who still owned a truly material personal stake and followed a long-term blueprint with...
Great Founders Avoid Over‑deferring to Senior Hires
New episode of Long Strange Trip with @bhorowitz of @a16z is now live. The first time I pitched Ben for @HubSpot, he passed on us. It stung. So naturally, it’s the first thing I brought up with him in this convo. He’s...
Warner Bros. Games Plans Major Franchise Revivals by 2028
Warner Bros. Games will “return to some of our biggest franchises" in 2027-2028 says WB Games CEO JB Perrette. https://t.co/5OxOqI9h1i
Satya Nadella Pivot Saved Microsoft From $5B Loss
Mason Morfit: "The lion's share of credit has to go to Satya Nadella. To state the obvious, he's just been an incredible CEO... The company was losing ~$5 billion a year on this ill-fated devices venture... Satya very quickly pivoted...
Leaders Who Risk Change Markets, Not Companies
observed: the default view of many public investors is that companies cannot materially change - that they exist in a static state. in some cases, this assumption is right. but markets evolve when leaders take risks driving change. and markets...
Investors Question Netflix's Push for WBD Amid Skepticism
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos will say he looks long term, but if Netflix ups its bid for WBD, investors who clearly are skeptical about the deal — even as is — may get even more concerned: why does Netflix want...
CEO Remains Bullish as Shares Plunge 70%
"The best days of @TheTradeDesk are ahead of us. I want to thank our employees, our clients, and our Partners for their trust and support throughout 2025. I am as confident as I have ever been in the opportunity in...
Verizon Leverages FWA to Expand Sustainable Subscriber Base
"with FWA ... we're building a long-term sustainable business. We have over 5.7 million subs in our base...and we see a lot of room to grow there. So we can do both and we have the capacity and the network...
Asha Sharma Returns as Xbox CEO, Second Microsoft Stint
Fun fact: Asha Sharma's appointment as CEO of Xbox is her second time working on Microsoft's gaming brand A Microsoft rep confirmed to me that she did some Xbox work back during her initial 2011-2013 Microsoft stint but didn't specify what...
Jensen Huang Discusses VAST Data at SLC Conference
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang on VAST Data today at VAST FWD in SLC - https://t.co/5VYAhyx8RC
Samsung Aims to Bring AI to All, Privacy Assured
Kicking off Galaxy Unpacked with CEO TM Roh talking about @SamsungMobile drive to make AI reach everybody with the confidence that privacy is assured https://t.co/wluLL9EVjO
Automation Will Kill Network Effects of Seat‑based Tools
If a company had a network effect but that network effect is induced by people whose roles will get automated via AI, that company will surely have a decelerating network effect. There are many seat-based tools like this that are...
Ed Fries: New Xbox Leaders Mirror Original Management
Ed Fries weighs in on the new Xbox changes, saying Asha Sharma and Matt Booty are not so different from the original leadership. Exclusive. https://t.co/muo6ftTR4C
GSK's New CEO Targets Proven Science, Eyes Obesity Drugs
The FT's report on GSK's $950M deal to buy 35Pharma and its pulmonary arterial hypertension drug includes an interesting unnamed insider's quote that new CEO Luke Miels is going after assets where "the science is relatively settled." Maybe leaning into...
ONE Container Line Swaps CEOs Amid Global Trade Turmoil
ONE container line. Changing its CEO and leadership structure. Why? What does it mean in a time of supply chain chaos with geopolitics and Trump’s trade war actions where lines have little control?
New Xbox CEO Defers Commentary, Cites Need to Understand Decisions
New Xbox CEO's second interview after the shakeup (Variety had the 1st). Nothing about layoffs, exclusivity, hardware plans, or why Bond left and nobody thanked her. Sharma says she still needs to learn why decisions were made before commenting on them? https://t.co/SjQr6dGwYO
Disney's Comm Chief Kristina Schake Exits with Iger
And.... some big Disney news too. Chief of comms Kristina Schake will leave on March 18 to coincide with Bob Iger's CEO departure. No replacement named.
AI Empowers CEOs to Right-Size Workforce Aggressively
“The companies that were 200 people and probably should have been 120? They want to be 80 now. AI has given every CEO permission to finally right-size in ways they were afraid to before.” This is the new reality. For...
New Xbox CEO Aims to Revive Gaming Division
Inside Microsoft’s big Xbox leadership shake-up. Microsoft has a new gaming CEO who wants to bring Xbox back from the brink. I've been speaking to Xbox employees about how it all went down. Gift link for emergency Notepad issue this...
Nvidia CEO: Trillions Required for Global AI Expansion
Nvidia CEO Huang Says Trillions More Needed for AI Buildout https://t.co/gk4YrrCQym @nvidia @nvidianewsroom #WEF26 #DAVOS #AI #IoT #MWC26 https://t.co/M2lTdcJyST
CEO Warwick Smith Discusses Deal Strategies at American Pacific
Resource Expert Sean Brodrick interviews Deal-maker CEO Warwick Smith of American Pacific Mining Corp $USGDF $USGD.CA https://t.co/9vg3VBGu4A https://t.co/fs6rz3m196
Smartness Means Anticipating the Future, Says Nvidia CEO
Nvidia CEO defines what it means to be smart and importance of seeing around corners https://t.co/isVrlJtjUp