Investor Gerry Cardinale on Why WarnerMount Will Work, Middle East Money, and Layoffs
The Town with Matthew Belloni
The Ringer
4.3 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2026
⏱️ 39 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of The Town is brought to you by The Madison, the new original series on Paramount Plus. |
| 0:10.2 | Academy Award nominee Taylor Sheridan's most intimate story yet, unlike anything he's ever done before. |
| 0:15.9 | The Madison follows a family raised in a world of digital distraction forced by tragedy to truly see one another |
| 0:22.1 | and come together. Authentic, multi-layered, and did I mention starring Michelle Pfeiffer and |
| 0:27.6 | Kurt Russell? Don't miss the Madison. New series streaming March 14th, only on Paramount |
| 0:33.6 | Plus. It is Wednesday, March 4th. WarnerMount Week continues on the town as we further digest Paramount buying Warner Brothers Discovery, |
| 0:43.5 | one of the biggest and most impactful studio mergers in the history of the entertainment business. |
| 0:48.0 | We discussed the Hollywood angle with Lucas on Friday. |
| 0:51.2 | Then we did the Wall Street perspective with Rich Greenfield on Monday. |
| 0:54.5 | Should listen to both those episodes. Today, it's the view from inside this $11 billion |
| 1:00.5 | mega deal, what the investment thesis was for the Ellison family, how they plan to pare down |
| 1:06.4 | that $79 billion debt they took on to fund this deal, whether they'll sell one or both movie studio |
| 1:13.1 | lots, and if these Saudis and other Middle East investors will be among those backers. |
| 1:18.4 | Lots of questions. |
| 1:19.3 | So we've got the chief architect of this deal back on the show to discuss. |
| 1:23.8 | Jerry Cardinal is the founder and managing partner of Redbird Capital. |
| 1:27.9 | It's the private equity fund that backed Skydance and then Paramount Skydance and now the takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery. |
| 1:34.9 | Jerry does a lot of other deals, too, especially in the media space. |
| 1:37.4 | He's arguably the biggest and most influential dealmaker in the space right now. |
| 1:41.5 | He's agreed to let me grill him on the contours of this transaction. |
| 1:45.5 | Why, he says the coming cost cuts will not primarily focus on employee layoffs. |
| 1:50.7 | And ultimately, why he and David Ellison believe this mega deal is good for Hollywood. |
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