Even stories like this need to be told. After 4 years, I am now finished with $PARAA (+0%) and I will probably sell this week. The reason is that there will be a takeover bid of USD 23 by tomorrow's deadline. However, I will not accept this, but will sell via the secondary market at around USD 22.5 for the sake of speed. I will also not take the opportunity to swap the shares for shares in the new company.

Unfortunately, this is a very unsatisfactory situation for me. I had planned the sale for a long time and speculated on a sale price of at least USD 24 so that I would not have to realize any further losses.

The 100 shares will therefore be sold again at 5% below the buy-in. Added to this are trading fees of €12 and taxes of around €20. The losses can therefore not be compensated by the net dividends of €73, so that the bottom line is that the loss pot is once again in the red.

Overall, this process is extremely unsatisfactory, having to part with a long-term buy-and-hold position and at a loss. But this is also part of the process and must therefore be addressed. A small consolation is that there are at least plenty of opportunities on the market at the moment to re-invest the capital that has been freed up.

Compared to the size of the portfolio, the losses are only minimal. And they are in no way comparable to the de facto total losses of shares that are either down 90% or are currently untradeable for stupid reasons. Nevertheless, the disappointment is severe when you buy a supposedly solid and high-dividend stock only to have it outperform your savings account and even your cash.

Paramount Global CLASS A and CLASS B shares (complicated questions for professionals)

First of all, we all know the difference between Class A and Class B shares. Basically, Class A shares have voting rights and are more expensive, while Class B shares are priced lower (and therefore may have a higher dividend yield) and have no voting rights.

In principle, it should not matter which of the two shares you buy, as the performance is almost identical. This also works very well with Berkshire in the following example $BRK.A (-6.01%) and $BRK.B (-6.3%)

However, I have now found a very complicated case involving the shares of Paramount Global, namely $PARA (-4.22%) and $PARAA (+0%) These basically work in the same way as described above, but the charts are completely independent of each other. For example, over the year (YTD) the Class A share has gained +16%, while the Class B share has fallen by -8%.

Now the takeover that all shareholders are hoping for is finally on the horizon (I reported on it) and something strange is happening again. The Class A share, which is actually performing better, rises by +10% over the month, while the Class B share rises by +30%.

But that makes no sense at all, because if we assume a takeover, the Class A share should actually be much more interesting, as the aim is to buy up the voting rights.

Am I crazy, or does this really not make any sense at all?

Some of you know I've been super bullish on ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global) for a long time.

Actually, though, I have a question: does anyone know why the stock has exploded so much since yesterday? Haven't found anything on it. Today alone +10% without news....

My first post, please not too much hate. ViacomCBS is my second largest trade and should be added to. So the opinion should also be questioned.

What is ViacomCBS's business model? ViacomCBS is a media conglomerate, formed by the merger of Viacom with CBS Corporation. Revenues are generated by television channels (CBS), cable networks (Showtime, MTV, Nickelodeon, etc.), television studios (Paramount Pictures) and streaming services (Paramount+, PlutoTV).

Briefly about the key figures:

Market Cap: ~19 billion

P/E RATIO: 7

KUV: 0.67

Dividend yield: 3.43

P/E and KUV are well below historical average, dividend yield is well above. So, in my opinion, the stock is undervalued even without the growth opportunities.

Why is the stock so cheap? Price performance looks like shit, in my opinion aftermath of the Archegos debacle.

What are the growth opportunities? While the TV and Cable Networks segments are running sideways, the Streaming segment is growing strongly. In Q3 2021, revenue in the Streaming YoY segment grew 62%. Streaming subscription revenues even grew by 79%. The important thing to understand here is that ViacomCBS' streaming offerings are still fairly new and have not yet fully exploited existing markets (which can be seen in the growth numbers) and are not yet available even in core markets like Europe. Paramount+ will be launched in many countries in Europe, including Germany, in 2022.

What's my bottom line? We have here a very cheap stock by any standards (P/E 7 with a dividend yield of 3.43%). The group is well diversified in the media space and has strong growth opportunities in streaming, which can/will grow 40/50% in each of 2022/2023, as evidenced by growth to date and entry into new markets such as Europe.

There is, due to the valuation and the secure dividend almost no downside anymore, but if the streaming area continues to grow well and the stock is valued only close to the peer group, there is enormous potential. In addition, ViacomCBS is also a good takeover candidate, which also offers enormous potential for shareholders.