Speaker 1: He's taking stock with Kathleen Hayes and Pim Fox on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. Well, it's a deal that could have or
Speaker 1: still could. I suppose if the people talking about a
Speaker 1: deal get back together, it could have created the largest
Speaker 1: candy company in the world. But after her she has
Speaker 1: rejected an offer from Mandels and Global candy and snack
Speaker 1: food maker. You kind of wonder what's going to happen. Next.
Speaker 1: Joining me now is Alex Sherman. He is technology media
Speaker 1: and telecom m and a reporter. But bottom line, this
Speaker 1: is our deals guy. He follows all these deals day
Speaker 1: in and day out for Bloomberg and he's joining me
Speaker 1: now in our New York studio. Alex, Welcome, Thanks Kathleen,
Speaker 1: and we are going to talk about stars and lines.
Speaker 1: Gape at first, because this is the breaking news. You've
Speaker 1: been watching deals for a long time. So Mandeleys tells
Speaker 1: her she we want to We're gonna pay what a
Speaker 1: dollar seven a share? And her she says, no, thank you.
Speaker 1: What do you think's going on? So just saying no
Speaker 1: thank you doesn't necessarily mean no thank you, because sometimes
Speaker 1: it gets out of a company's hand. So in other words,
Speaker 1: you know, a typical deal is done in what's called
Speaker 1: sort of a friendly manner, which is that the two
Speaker 1: companies have negotiations, they discuss and then you know, maybe
Speaker 1: we break a story or maybe not, and a press
Speaker 1: releases announced that one company is buying another. If it
Speaker 1: isn't friendly, then what often happens is a a one
Speaker 1: company will send another company a so called a bear
Speaker 1: hug letter. And that's what we saw here, where a
Speaker 1: company says, look, we would like to buy you for
Speaker 1: this amount of money. Uh. It then oftentimes turns into
Speaker 1: a hostile situation, which is what this is more or less,
Speaker 1: where Hershey is coming out and saying, we rejected the
Speaker 1: offer and and we have uh, we don't see any
Speaker 1: reason to keep negotiations going with the buyer, Mandela. In
Speaker 1: this case, the question is does Mandelay then up its
Speaker 1: bid by significantly more money, thus putting pressure on Hershey
Speaker 1: to negotiate because it has shareholders to answer to. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, uh mondalai oreos Hershey chocolate seems be a
Speaker 1: good fit O. People don't eat sugar quite as much.
Speaker 1: But as you point out, there is a shareholder history.
Speaker 1: What should be what should we be watching for next?
Speaker 1: Is next big headline here. So the next big headline
Speaker 1: is if Montalais opposites bid. Uh. There's some talk that
Speaker 1: maybe this is a tactic on Mondalai's part to actually
Speaker 1: get acquired itself. In other words, threatened to buy another
Speaker 1: company and therefore put pressure on on a even larger company.
Speaker 1: You know, they've been talking earlier that Pepsi might want
Speaker 1: to buy Montalais. Whether it's Pepsi or somebody else, this
Speaker 1: would force the action on that move. So that's something
Speaker 1: else to look out for. Okay, here's a deal that
Speaker 1: we can talk about, and this is right up your alley,
Speaker 1: lions Gate Entertainment buying billionaire John Malone's Stars, a cash
Speaker 1: and stock deal valued at four point four billion dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we broke this story last night and it was announced
Speaker 1: this morning. Uh, not really a surprise for those following
Speaker 1: this industry closely. In fact, I believe I first broke
Speaker 1: the story that Stars was for sale in ten that's
Speaker 1: how long this company has been for sale. Finally breaking
Speaker 1: a deal today broker in one with lion Skate. The
Speaker 1: idea here is to put two uh subscale content companies
Speaker 1: together to give them more leverage Uh, to negotiate with
Speaker 1: some of the pay TV providers that we've seen come
Speaker 1: together in recent years. So I'm thinking about a T
Speaker 1: and T buying Direct TV, or All T spuying Sudden
Speaker 1: Lincoln Cable Vision, or Charter buying Time Warner Cable. Those
Speaker 1: deals gave the operators more leverage in the in the
Speaker 1: content negotiations between companies. Uh. So it is an after
Speaker 1: effect that the content companies now would come together. This
Speaker 1: was a John Malone and Mark Ritchesky deal. John Malone
Speaker 1: controls Stars and actually got on the board of lion Skate,
Speaker 1: so he was on both sides of this deal. Mark
Speaker 1: Rocheski the largest shareholder in lion Skate and will be
Speaker 1: the largest shareholder of the pro forma company if the
Speaker 1: deal in fact closes. What are Ana was saying about
Speaker 1: this is this, you know, the positive as goodbuy. It
Speaker 1: depends who you ask. There's definitely a a current and
Speaker 1: undercurrent of thought that this is sort of a desperate
Speaker 1: ration deal that both of these companies have struggled. Uh.
Speaker 1: And surely you can say that just take a look
Speaker 1: at their stock prices. Lionsgate had a terrible quarter last quarter.
Speaker 1: Stars has really struggled for a while. They had Disney
Speaker 1: Movies and they lost that contract to Netflix. Uh. So
Speaker 1: I think the idea was that these two companies need
Speaker 1: to do something. Uh And now the jury is still
Speaker 1: out if this something is enough. Alright. Alex Sherman, thank
Speaker 1: you so very much for joining us. He's a technology
Speaker 1: media and telecom m and a reporter for Bloomberg. Will
Speaker 1: be seeing how the maybe maybe maybe we'll be back
Speaker 1: on on the next deal. We'll see out of it. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's always sweet to have you here. Okay,