Key events
German GDP down 0.1%; Bronfman drops Paramount bid
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of business, economics and financial markets.
Germany’s economic outlook has worsened as GDP was confirmed to have fallen in the second quarter and consumer sentiment slumped, according to figures published on Tuesday.
GDP fell by 0.1% in the second quarter, confirming the previous estimate, said Destatis, the federal statistics office. GDP in the first quarter of 2024 was up 0.2% on the previous quarter, unrevised from the last reading.
Meanwhile job concerns weighed on German consumer sentiment. GfK’s closely followed index fell to -22 points for September. That was down from a slightly revised -18.6 the month prior and below a forecast by economists polled by Reuters for -18.2.
Ruth Brand, Destatis’s president, said:
After the slight increase in the previous quarter, the German economy slowed down again in spring.
Germany’s economy has narrowly avoided a technical recession for a year and a half, alternating between a contracting economy followed by expansion. Two consecutive quarters of contraction is one commonly used definition of recession.
Edgar Bronfman drops bid for Paramount
Media industry veteran Edgar Bronfman has dropped his bid to take over Paramount Global, paving the way for a $28bn (£21bn) deal with Skydance to proceed.
Bronfman, a former Warner Music chief executive, had gathered a consortium of investors to try to gazump Skydance after it last month agreed a merger (described, of course, as a blockbuster) with Paramount. The deal will, if it goes through, sever links with the Redstone family, whose media empire has included Paramount since 1994.
That deal had a “go shop” period in the terms, allowing Paramount to evaluate other offers. Bronfman gathered a consortium to offer $4.3bn and then $6bn to Shari Redstone, who controls the company. However, he failed to come up with the equity to finance the deal, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.
Paramount is the company behind classic films such as The Godfather, Titanic and Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It also owns the television network CBS and channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and the UK’s Channel 5.
Skydance, a film production group, is led by the producer David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison, the tech tycoon who co-founded Oracle.
The agenda
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11am BST: UK Confederation of British Industry distributive trades index (August; previous: -43; consensus: -11)
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2pm BST: US S&P/Case-Shiller home price index (June; prev.: 6.8% year-on-year; cons.: 6%)
