Why Paramount could win if it loses the Warner Bros. Discovery deal

MarketWatch quoted Feng Gu in an article about how Paramount could win if it loses the Warner Bros. Discovery deal. The article cites The M&A Failure Trap, coauthored by Gu, stating that roughly 70% to 75% of the 40,000 M&A deals between 1980 and 2022 were failures — destroying shareholder value. Gu noted in an email, “Moreover, these percentages understate the long odds that Paramount faces. Sizable deals, as well as deals financed in large part by debt, have higher failure rates — and both are true about the Paramount-Warner deal. “The large deal size … and heavy long-term debt borrowing … point to a negative prospect.”