With PARA approaching $16/share it reminds me that history might not repeat itself but it sure does rhyme. Only this time, content creators are eating Bob's lunch and there's no Hulu deal coming to bail us out.
November 4 2008:
Subject: On behalf of Bob Bakish - IMPORTANT Team: We are living in a time of unprecedented economic challenges. It is clear that the global economic slow down is real and will take us into next year. With that in mind, we need to dramatically reduce our spending for the balance of the year and for 2009. Senior managers across the regions and strategic services have been given this message and are in the process of identifying savings opportunities. As you know, we have suspended all hiring (including staff, temps and freelancers) and instituted significant restrictions on discretionary items such as on travel, entertainment, consulting, third party services and the like. I know these actions are not pleasant and delivering this message is not easy. However, it is the right thing to do. We, like others around us in media and the general business community, have no choice but to respond quickly to this difficult environment. It is only with this type of response that we can ensure our Brands will continue to prosper and provide our global consumers the innovative content they want and our partners the unique value they expect.
Source: https://www.gawker.com/5076280/ominous-viacom-memo-need-to-dramatically-reduce-spending