WarnerMount One Step Closer and the Bizarre ‘Michael’ Backstory

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Matt is joined by Semafor’s business and finance editor Liz Hoffman to discuss Wall Street's view of the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, this morning's WBD shareholder vote to approve the $110B deal, the non-binding rejection of David Zaslav’s exorbitant pay package, how the board will respond, and Netflix’s reputation after its push to acquire Warner Bros (00:32). Then, Matt and Craig recap the ‘Michael’ premiere, discuss the sordid backstory of making the movie, and give their opening weekend box office prediction (25:50). Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Liz Hoffman Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jon Jones Theme Song: Devon Renaldo This episode is brought to you by AMC+. Start your free trial today at join.amcplus.com. Half Man is now streaming on HBO Max. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Isn't life grande?
0:01.9	And making it better just got easier with Starbucks new protein cold foam.
0:06.7	A little something, something to take your favorite drinks up a notch with 15 grams of extra protein.
0:13.2	Turn your usual iced caramel latte into a smooth iced caramel protein latte.
0:18.5	Add a delicious swirl on top of your drink, just like that.
0:23.3	Protein never tasted so good with Starbucks new protein cold foam.
0:27.7	Subject to availability while stocks last.
0:34.7	This episode of The Town is presented to you by AMC Networks.
0:38.7	Billy Magnuson and Zach Galfinacus star in the new series The Audacity on AMC and AMC Plus.
0:45.2	Influence rises, people unravel, and CEO meltdowns are business as usual among Silicon Valley elite.
0:51.6	Executive produced by Jonathan Glasser, a writer-producer of Succession and Better Call Saul.
0:56.5	Watch new episodes of The Audacity,
0:58.4	Sundays exclusively on AMC and AMC Plus.
1:02.9	It is Thursday, April 23rd.
1:05.3	For better or worse, WarnerMount is one very big step
1:08.3	closer to becoming a reality.
1:10.5	This morning, the shareholders of Warner Brothers
1:12.3	Discovery voted to Greenlight the $110 billion sale to Paramount and the Ellison family. The vote was
1:18.6	overwhelming, they said, that we don't have the final certification yet. This was pretty much
1:23.0	expected. Remember, the Warner stock was trading at about $8 or $9 before Larry and David Ellison came along,
1:29.7	and the final deal values the company at $31 a share, an easy yes for these shareholders.
1:35.6	They did not rubber stamp everything, though.
	...

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