In case the current media year couldn’t get any stranger, Elon Musk is coming along to ask us to hold his Diet Coke.
With the biggest investigation into him ever already underway in theaters, we now have the news that Musk is writing big checks to Skydance as he descends and lands with a thud. Or is it a Mars-level explosion?
On Thursday, we learned that Elon would invest (to start with?) $1 billion in the David Ellison company, according to a report from Semafor. This follows comments Wednesday from John Malone, who suggested (informed?) that Musk was about to invest even more money via a SpaceX-centric deal with the Ellisons. “I think a deal is being made,” the Liberty Media chief said at a Paley Center summit earlier this week. “I don’t doubt for a minute that you’re going to see an announcement in a very long time.” Malone was short on details but was long on amounts: Musk’s membership is said to be between $8 billion and $10 billion. The billion dollars could be just the beginning.
The emphasis here has been on the Ellisons’ need for money. David and his father Larry, who financed much of the Warner Bros. acquisition, are in a $79 billion hole, and you can only remove that amount to make up the difference. A nice billion dollars from Elon, even if it’s not all in cash, takes the pressure off you from the bankers. A billion dollars of cooling already helps.
But the Ellisons’ financial leeway (we should all feel such asphyxiation) falls far behind, in terms of consequences, what such an investment would create: a back door for Musk to enter the world of media and entertainment.
Own a share of Paramount-Warner Bros. (depending on valuation, the $10 billion could yield up to 15%) would give him a seat at the table for the company’s biggest decisions. Even if that doesn’t come with a board seat (it depends on how many voting shares he would get), it would certainly buy entry into David Ellison. Musk already got it through Larry, a close associate who financed the purchase of Twitter, but writing an eleven-figure check is a weird way to open the channel further. And that would give Musk a content pipeline on X, a highly coveted resource. The mogul has attempted such an effort before, with original shows from Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard and Jim Rome as part of a deal with Range Media Partners, and a plan for WWE mini-episodes.
But this changes things for X and Musk in a much more radical way. Access to Skydance content makes him more than just a dilettante in the content world: it makes him a streamer.
Episodes of Yellow stone, The last of us, NCIS, Game of Thrones — not to mention many live sports on Turner and CBS — would now all potentially live on X, at some paid tier or otherwise. And X would be bolstered by Skydance’s ad sales team, giving it an even bigger boost.
By the way, don’t sleep on one key person who could make all of this happen: Ari Emanuel. He’s close to Musk, close to the Ellisons, and the kind of kingmaker who delights in bringing these worlds together (not least because it further pushes the wrinkles out of his wallet.)
The investment would officially come through SpaceX, but of course many of Musk’s biggest properties are already owned by the company, including X, xAI, and Starlink. And he recently started talking again about his long-held fantasy of merging Tesla with him as well. So make no mistake: a SpaceX entry into Skydance is a Musk entry into Hollywood.
So, yes, if you were wondering what it meant for Ellison to combine two former studios into one, imagine when 15% of the resulting company is owned by the richest man in the world. Who is also the largest donor to Republican candidates and Trump (by far). WHO The Wall Street Journal reports ordered Starshield to slow down, abandoning Ukraine. As Jon Spencer once said Blues Explosion, now I worry.
And there is another domino to fall: Starlink. The company that already provides Internet service to about five million Americans and many more people abroad could become much larger and more central to our communication. SpaceX purchased spectrum last week in an effort to directly compete with major wireless carriers AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. This has been a big priority for SpaceX. Last year, it signed deals worth $19 billion with Dish TV owner Charlie Ergen that also included spectrum licenses. Buying one of these big three telecommunications companies wouldn’t be out of the question either.
If Musk both owned a minority stake in two of the biggest studios and was also one of the world’s biggest internet providers, he would achieve the kind of content verticality that no company has ever owned in American media and communications, let alone just one person at the head of this company. (Musk owns about 85% of the voting stock in SpaceX.) Controlling a stake in HBO and CNN and how we view them – what could go wrong?
A lot, of course, starting with the fact that some of Musk’s best-known critics, from John Oliver to Jake Tapper, are now reportedly under Musk’s thumb. And he seems like a guy who takes criticism well. These and other former WBD figures are also among the biggest critics of MAGA and the Republicans — meaning Musk is currently spending nearly $300 million to stay in power.
Oh, and did I mention HBO next year should broadcast Musk’s withdrawal from Alex Gibney? I’m sure it’s something he can’t wait to get out there.
Gibney’s film paints the image of an Elon determined to take over the world. As the final credits barely roll, Musk puts this plan into action. For a guy who thinks he’s a hit man, he sure does a lot to make Gibney look like a prophet.
There are only two things that could reasonably stop this snowball of influence. The first concerns regulators. Except…
And, Trump aside, the FCC is chaired by Brendan Carr, one of Musk’s biggest fanboys. Asking him to stop Musk is like asking Kevin Feige to promote Superman.
Hope would lie in a change at the White House in 2028 — there was already a lot of regulatory pressure on Musk under Joe Biden, one of the reasons Musk went all-in on Trump in the first place. Of course, two years is an eternity in the age of tycoons, and even if Democrats take back the White House in 2028, Musk might simply be too strong to regulate.
The second hope lies in Wall Street. Musk’s money and influence are largely given to him by investors; if Tesla and SpaceX’s stock prices drop enough, its purchasing (and borrowing) power suddenly diminishes. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. Investors love it when Musk expands, makes deals — see how SpaceX stock jumped double digits on Wednesday, in part because of Tesla merger buzz. Skydance and Starlink investments will only send valuations further into space. Of course, the whole bubble in tech and AI stocks could collapse, taking Elon’s wealth and power with it. But given the recession and wallet ruin that would bring, I don’t think we want to encourage ourselves in that direction.
In Gibney’s film, Musk’s father, Errol, says with a knowing chuckle that anyone who underestimates his son quickly learns the lesson: he always, always wins.
The media was fooled once on Twitter – no way he’s buying it, we all said that in 2022 – then quickly found themselves with no place to park such cutting comments. To be fooled twice would be simply shameful.
Gn bussni
