RedBird's Cardinale Says Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Built on Growth, Not Layoffs

RedBird Capital Partners founder Gerry Cardinale said the Paramount Skydance Corp. acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is driven by growth rather than cost cuts, forecasting a performance that will "surprise" investors. The combined company aims to show "a trajectory of real meaningful growth," he said Thursday at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles. Cardinale, 58, a former Goldman Sachs investment banker, said cost-cutting and staff reassignments will occur but are not the deal's rationale. "It's just the opposite" of a plan to "fire everybody in Hollywood," he said. Paramount expects to close the $110 billion deal on October 6, 2026, after settling with 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild, which had sought to block it in court. Cardinale dismissed claims that the Ellison family's ties to President Donald Trump swayed federal approval.