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- [00:00]
Percy Jackson
My name is Percy Jackson. Getting in trouble is like breathing for me.
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Commercial Announcer
The hit series returns to Disney and Hulu.
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Michael Popak
The danger the camp is under is greater than you can possibly imagine. For the key to our survival, three.
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Commercial Announcer
Of you must quest to the Sea of Monsters.
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Percy Jackson
Let's go do the impossible.
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I'm not gonna let some stupid monsters stand in my way.
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Commercial Announcer
Percy Jackson and the Olympians New season now on Disney and Hulu. Learn more@disneyplus.com whatson the holidays mean more.
- [00:32]
LifeLock Advertiser
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- [00:55]
Michael Popak
Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com podcast Terms apply this episode.
- [01:02]
Percy Jackson
Is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to move your business forward, but first you need to find the right team. Start your search with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It can help you reach qualified candidates fast, ensuring your listing is the first one they see. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs are 90% more likely to report a hire than non sponsored jobs. See the results for yourself. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com podcast terms and conditions apply.
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Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree, Zoe.
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Commercial Announcer
This thing weighs a ton. Drew Ski. Live with your legs, man.
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Percy Jackson
Santa.
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Michael Popak
Santa, did you get my letter?
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Commercial Announcer
He's talking to you britches.
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Michael Popak
I'm not.
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Percy Jackson
Of course he did.
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Commercial Announcer
Right Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here. He handles the nice list. And elf, I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T Mobile you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies.
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Michael Popak
Right, Mrs. Claus?
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Percy Jackson
I'm Mrs. Claus's much younger sister and AT T Mobile there's no trade in needed when you switch. So you can keep your old phone.
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Commercial Announcer
Or give it as a gift.
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Percy Jackson
And the best part? You can make the switch to T Mobile from your phone in just 15 minutes.
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Michael Popak
Guys, my side of the tree is slipping. Kimber, the holidays are better. AT T Mobile switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill.
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Percy Jackson
Credits for well qualified customers plus tax.
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Michael Popak
And $35 vice connection charge credits and.
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Percy Jackson
Balance due if you pay off earlier.
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Michael Popak
Your Cancel Finance Agreement 256Gates $830 eligible board in a new line $100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes and fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line.
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Percy Jackson
Visit t mobile.com Holidays mean feasting. From cheddar biscuits to French toast bakes, HeroBred has you covered with 0 to 5 grams net carb and high fiber options to ensure your holidays stay delicious and balanced. Like their 3 grams net carb pan au chocolat, Herobred is offering 10% off your order. Go to Hero Co and use code fall25 at checkout. That's fall25hero co. All figures are per serving of Hero Bread contains up to 17 grams of fat per serving. See the product nutrition panels on Hero Co for more information.
- [03:01]
Michael Popak
We got a hostile takeover involving Donald Trump and Jared Kushner and Warner Brothers and cnn, of all things all coming bursting out into the open as Netflix battles it out with Donald Trump's buddies company Skydance, Paramount, over the Warner Brothers assets, including cnn. And Donald Trump is putting his big fat thumb on the scale in favor of the Skydance, Paramount and Larry Ellison and his family, mainly because Jared Kushner, his son in law, who has an investment company through Saudi Arabia called Affinity Partners, is part of their deal. And on the losing end, potentially, is Netflix, an American company. So Donald Trump is siding with Jared Kushner, his son in law, his buddy Larry Ellison, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi to take over an American company, Warner Brothers, get control of Superman and CNN and all of its assets and beat out Netflix, an American company. I'm gonna report on it right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal af. We got a hostile takeover, folks, and that means something. I'll explain it to you. Putting on my Wall street hat as well. I've been involved with hostile takeovers. I'll tell you what all that means and how Donald Trump is gonna try to use his Department of Justice and its antitrust division. He's going to use it as a tool to bash Netflix and to award this prize of Warner Brothers, including cnn, over to his buddy Larry Ellison. Now that'll give Donald Trump two major mainstream media properties, CBS and cnn, all under the rubric of Paramount Skydance, which will fulfill one of his dreams to to take over mainstream media. Do you know why? Now we're on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal af, while.
- [04:57]
The independence of commentary and analysis and journalism is so important right now as Donald Trump gobbles up mainstream media who all bent the knee. So let's talk about this Deal on paper, of course. It hit all the media and Hollywood papers. Oh, Warner Brothers, which is HBO and DC Comics, like Superman and CNN and CNN, they're gonna be taking over. And there's a bidding war. Now here's how it works. Before there's a hostile takeover, there's a friendly bidding process. A board of directors, in this case for Warner Brothers, sets up a special committee which is independent from the board of directors. It may have one or two board members of the board on there, but then with other people assigned to it who are independent, they get their own lawyer, their own general counsel or advisors to the special committee. And under Delaware law, which is what controls most companies in America are incorporated in Delaware. So they have the benefit of all the Delaware precedent, Delaware Chancery court judges who know what they're doing in the world of business and mergers and acquisitions. The special committee makes the decision. It has to. Once it's decided that for shareholder value it needs to sell itself, that then the company goes up on the auction block and it becomes in play. It's an auction. Highest bidder. Now, it's not just numbers. If all things are equal and everybody's bidding in cash, okay. But if some of them make different proposals, like we're gonna take half the company, or we're gonna take the company and break it up, or we're gonna put this division over here, or we've got a lot of Arab money or something like that. So you have to evaluate. And that's what the special committee, along with its advisors, economic advisors, business advisors, legal advisors, tax tax advisors. That's what they evaluate in order to tell the shareholders, the public shareholders, what the board or the special committee's view is. Now, they accepted Netflix's offer of $28 a share for $72 billion purchase price. Largest acquisition in US history. Paramount didn't like that. In the Ellison family, who is best friends with Donald Trump, didn't like that. And they don't want to lose CNN and neither does Donald Trump. So they fired back with what's called style bid. 108 billion. I didn't go to, I didn't major in math, but I know that 108 billion is bigger than 72 billion. All things being equal, most of it's in cash. Where's the cash coming from? Donald Trump's Jared son in law, Jared Kushner, his Affinity Partners, which is a couple of billion in Saudi Arabian money. That's an investor. Saudi Arabia Sovereign Wealth Fund, Abu Dhabi Sovereign Wealth Fund. Qatar's sovereign wealth fund make up and then some other bank money, some money from the Ellison family, all stitched together in order to make this hostile bid. Now the hostile bid is to try to blow the special committee off the ball and to appeal directly to the voters who are the shareholders to put pressure on the special committee to accept Paramount's deal, waving around a lot of cash and a lot of money. That means Netflix is going to have to come up. I'm not giving you stock advice on what to buy right now, but you can see the where what stock is up and what stock is down in this transaction already. There's another group of people that are going to help regulate this issue besides Donald Trump's threats that he's going to interfere on behalf of Paramount, and that's the stockholders because there's already dozens of plaintiffs law firms that have already drafted, I'm sure their lawsuits to file in Delaware to argue the board has done something wrong or Paramount has, or Netflix has to try to get highest stockholder value and shareholder value and legal fees available Ever wake up sweaty, freezing or just plain uncomfortable? The temperature in your bedroom can make or break your sleep. That's why I switched to Miracle Made Sheets. They're inspired by NASA technology and use silver infused temperature regulating fabric to help you sleep perfectly all night long. With Miracle Made, you'll sleep at the perfect temperature whether you run hot or cold. These sheets keep you in the comfort zone from the moment you crawl in to the moment you wake up. And here's what I love. They stay cleaner longer thanks to their antibacterial silver technology. Miracle Made sheets stay fresh up to three times longer than regular sheets, meaning fewer odors, fewer wash cycles and way less laundry. They're luxuriously comfortable too. Smooth, breathable and soft like what you'd find in a five star hotel, but without the luxury price tag. So upgrade your sleep or give the gift of better rest. Go to trymiracle.com legal AF to try Miracle Mate sheets. Today you'll save over 40% and when you use promo code legal AF you'll get an extra 20% off plus a free three piece towel set. They make an amazing gift and with a 30 day money back guarantee, there's no risk. That's try miracle.com legal af code legal af at checkout thanks to Miracle made for sponsoring this episode. Now how do I know that Donald Trump so that's hostile takeover. Generally, a company has what's called a poison pill or some sort of shareholder rights agreement that protects the company from hostile takeovers but from my research, it appears that Warner Brothers Discovery does not have a poison pill. A poison pill means if somebody hostilely comes in and tries to gobble them up, they're poisoned. Something happens. They have to sell off a whole division or the stock that they acquire is in voting shares. Something happens that's negative. That's called a poison pill. But apparently there's no poison pillar. There's no protective mechanism. They are vulnerable to a hostile takeover. This will be decided by a special committee, by the board and then by a Delaware chancery judge. Now Donald Trump wants to interfere and now I know why. Cuz Jared Kushner, his son in law, is involved. Here's what he said coming out of a gala I think at the Kennedy Center. Maybe you'll relate it to FIFA with Melania at his side. Play the clip.
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Donald Trump
Mr. President, I met with Ted. I think he's fantastic. I think he's in the history of Hollywood. There's really been almost, you could say nothing like what he's done. He'd go back to Louis V. Mayer, maybe Metro, Golden Mayor, mgm. Ted has done an incredible job. I mean, he had a company that was very troubled seven or eight years ago and he took it over and he, he's really done a legendary job.
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Michael Popak
Should they be allowed to buy Warner Brothers? Should?
- [11:42]
Donald Trump
Well, that's the question. They have a very big market share and when they have Warner Brothers, you know, that chair goes up a lot. So I don't know that's going to be for some economists to tell. And also, and I'll be involved in that decision too. They have a very big market share. Did he make any guarantees to you about the merger if they do merge? No, no. He came up. He was in the Oval Office last week. I have a lot of respect for him. He's a great, he's a great person. But he's done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies and other things. He's, he's got a lot of interesting things happening aside from what you're talking about. But it is a big market share. There's no question about.
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Michael Popak
And to show you that we're in the hostile takeover world. The son of Larry Ellison, the Nepo baby that runs Paramount, Skydance, he went on the Squawk Box earlier today and he had this to say about his bid. Play the clip.
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Percy Jackson
David, why are you doing this?
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LifeLock Advertiser
So look, we're really here to finish what we started. Like just to kind of take you through the road in terms of how we got here. On December 1st, we made an offer to acquire Warner Brothers Discovery to their board. Had a conversation with David Zaslav. He came back with a bunch of issues. We then on December 4 sent in a bid that addressed every single one of them that is superior to the bid that they signed up. Our offer is $30 a share, all cash, $41 billion in equity. That's backstopped by the Ellison family and Redbird, $54 billion in debt. With commitments from Citi bank of America and Apollo, we have faster regulatory certainty to close. And our deal is pro consumer, it's pro creative talent, it's, it's pro competition. And we believe that when you actually, to further contextualize, there are $30 in cash, or sorry, $30 a share is basically $17.6 billion in cash, more than the $20, $23 in share they signed up.
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Michael Popak
So here's what's going to happen. Donald Trump is going to try to use the Department of Justice that he controls and its antitrust division to make an argument that somehow Netflix, which is a giant streaming service with 400 million streaming customers, by taking over a Hollywood.
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Online studio, is anti competitive for consumers. I don't really see that. Look, Netflix, for those that don't remember Netflix in the beginning days, I do. In 2000 or so, when it was the Red Envelope Company, you know, you got DVDs of movies three to six at a time for like $6 or $8 a month, showed up in a red envelope. You know that that's what they were doing. They just were like Amazon and shipping movies. That's what you got. Then maybe 10 years in streaming got fast enough. The velocity of dial up and modems and Internet speed, upload and download got fast enough that they could start streaming the movies instead of sending you a physical disk. So you did that. They had no original content. Then they started doing original content about eight or nine or ten years ago, which accelerated during COVID And now they're a studio. Netflix makes movies.
- [14:53]
Netflix makes TV shows and documentaries and host sporting events. They are in need of content. And so why they. The reason they want Warner Brothers, hbo, DC Comics, Superman and CNN is they want the content to shove through their pipe of streaming. Paramount, Skydance. Paramount is already a Hollywood studio. Skydance is this TV station thing. And they, they're desperately in need of assets as well. But I don't really, I see them equally as anti competitive here. Just because Netflix is larger in streaming, they're not larger in content creation. So Donald Trump's gonna though put his big fat thumb on the scale and try to benefit Larry Ellison and his son in law and to get control of cnn. Never lose sight of the fact that Donald Trump got control of cbs. They're effectively gonna be forget the Columbia Broadcasting System and the Tiffany Network, they are effectively going to become the propaganda network for Donald Trump with ads that are supporting of the administration guaranteed by Ellison's son. 60 Minutes, I mean 60 Minutes just went after Marjorie Taylor Greene. I'm not sure we're gonna see much more of that going on in the future, especially about people Donald Trump likes. So that's what Donald Trump wants. You know what? He'll never take over Midas Touch. He'll never take over Legal AF or the work of me, Michael Popak. I assure you of that and help us take a minute. Hit the free subscribe button here on Midas Touch. Come over to Legal AF where we're gonna cross the 1 million subscriber in just about a year it's taken us to get there. With your help we're at about 980,000. We're gonna hit 990 this weekend and then right before Christmas, Hanukkah, we're going to get a big gift for all of us, a million subscribers and get us ready to be strong and robust for 2026 and beyond. Thank you for your support. I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we form the Legal AF substack every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument. Come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there's including a daily roundup that I do called Wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal a F on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.
- [17:27]
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- [18:00]
Percy Jackson
Look, I'm standing out front of a.m. p.m. Right now and well, you're sweet and all, but I found something more fulfilling, even kind of cheesy. I like it. Sure, you met some of my dietary needs, but they've just got it all. So farewell Oatmeal so long Use strange.
- [18:16]
Commercial Announcer
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