With CNN on the verge of changing ownership again, this time as part of Paramount’s massive $111 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, media mogul Barry Diller says if given the chance he would snatch up the iconic news brand immediately.
“Sure, I’ll do that tonight and tomorrow night,” Diller said. Wall Street Journal Reporter Cara Lombardo at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Summit in New York on Tuesday. “Before they destroy them further. I hope they go extinct, which means they won’t.”
Diller had previously approached WBD about acquiring the television news outlet, which was founded by Ted Turner and bailed out by John Malone, one of Diller’s mentors. CNN is “so mature” for innovation “that I don’t think it will be seen for nearly 10 years,” the business mogul said Tuesday.
Instead, CNN appears destined to participate in the “brutal process” that Paramount will need to undertake to cut costs when its deal is completed.
“So how they do that and also manage the remaining companies…I don’t know,” Diller said.
Diller, who announced last week that he would step down as CEO of IAC and rename the holding company as People Incorporated, also said at the conference that he had looked “very deeply” into the Vox Media deal, which appears destined for James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems.
Diller, of course, has always been outspoken about the state of media and entertainment, and coming from one of the giants of the industry, his words carry weight. In an interview with Hollywood Reporter Last year, linked to his memoir, he framed Hollywood’s future as a battle they’ve already lost.
“I don’t think Hollywood studios will cease to exist. But I do think they will be much smaller operations than they were in the past,” he said. “The days of them controlling the media are over, and Hollywood will never recover from that. Hollywood is now under the dictatorial control of the tech companies, so it’s a smaller piece of the pie.”
