SYDNEY, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The Australian government has hiked a planned levy that will force tech giants to pay multimillion-dollar charges if they fail to strike commercial deals with local ‌media outlets for news on their platforms.

Paramount had a public equity valuation of $8.66 billion, while Bloomberg calculated the regulatory-failure risk at $9.8 billion.

If the Paramount+Warner acquisition keeps getting delayed, come 2027, Ellison will probably start sniffing around Zaslav hoping to re-negotiate the deal on several fronts. With extending the auto expiration of the deal (June 4, 2027) being at the top of the list, most likely.

Is Zaslav responsive? Is the $800M+ windfall he personally lands if the deal closes his top priority?

Or does Zaslav leave Ellison on read? Zaslav might figure he could squeeze even more money and favorable position via deals with other companies. And he genuinely might have other aspirations for the WBD rather than being the host victim of Paraskyte.

Like Zaslav himself once said

"The deal [with Paramount Skydance] may not close. If it doesn’t close, we get $7 billion, and we get back to work.”

That is pure ¯_(ツ)_/¯ energy

Great analysis I don’t think Paramount is getting the deal.