{"id":310,"date":"2026-01-14T13:45:01","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/ballys-owner-standard-general-could-make-run-at-cnn\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T13:45:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:45:01","slug":"ballys-owner-standard-general-could-make-run-at-cnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/ballys-owner-standard-general-could-make-run-at-cnn\/","title":{"rendered":"Bally\u2019s Owner Standard General Could Make Run at CNN"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><strong>Report suggests a Warner Bros. Discovery investor reached out to Soo Kim about potentially acquiring that company\u2019s cable networks, including <em>CNN<\/em>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Kim founded Standard General, the hedge fund that owns Bally\u2019s.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The money manager is well-versed in the media industry.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Talk about strange bedfellows. Bally\u2019s and <em>CNN <\/em>could eventually have the same owner. That being Soo Kim\u2019s Standard General.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_200531\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-200531\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-200531 lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" alt=\"Bally&#039;s\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/KIM-142x95.jpg\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/KIM-142x95.jpg 142w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/KIM-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/KIM-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/KIM-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/KIM.jpg 1200w\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-200531\"class=\"text-description\">Standard General founder Soo Kim. His hedge fund, which owns Bally&#8217;s, could be in play to acquire <em>CNN<\/em>. (Image: <em>Meet AC<\/em>\/<em>Casino.org<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A report by the <em>Financial Times<\/em> surfaced indicating an unidentified investor in Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) reached out to Kim about the possibility of his hedge fund acquiring that media giant\u2019s cable networks, including <em>Animal Planet<\/em>, <em>CNN<\/em>, <em>Discovery Channel<\/em>, and <em>TNT<\/em>. Warner Bros. has accepted a $72 billion takeover offer from Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) for its streaming and studio businesses.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The seller is attempting to ward off a hostile takeover bid from <em>CBS <\/em>parent Paramount Skydance (NASDAQ: PSKY), which wants to buy Warner Bros. in its entirety. Interestingly, the Standard General rumor surfaced on the same day in which another report emerged indicating an unidentified company made a $25 billion for some Warner Bros. assets and another article suggesting Warner Bros. wants Larry Ellison &#8212; father of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison &#8212; to personally guarantee that company\u2019s takeover bid.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Kim\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/standard-general-wraps-up-4-6-billion-ballys-acquisition\/\">Standard General<\/a> hasn\u2019t commented on any potential involvement with the <em>CNN <\/em>owner.<\/p>\n<h2>Standard General Steeped in Media Experience<\/h2>\n<p>In gaming circles, Standard General is widely known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-to-sell-rhode-island-casino-property-in-q1\/\">the owner of Bally\u2019s<\/a> &#8212; a regional casino operator with 15 gaming venues across 10 states &#8212; but Kim\u2019s firm has plenty of experience in the media industry, as well.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>In 2010, the hedge fund acquired regional broadcaster Young Broadcasting after it went bankrupt. Standard General rebuilt that company through a series of acquisitions and later it sold for a handsome profit to Nexstar Broadcasting. Three years ago, with the help of Apollo Global Management, Standard General attempted a $9 billion buyout of Tegna, but that deal was scrapped amid regulatory scrutiny.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>That is to say the hedge fund makes for a logical buyer of Warner Bros.\u2019 cable assets, including <em>CNN<\/em>, but it remains to be seen if such a deal comes to fruition.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As for Bally\u2019s, the gaming company is fresh off winning a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-bronx-metropolitan-park-resorts-world-granted-licenses\/\">New York City casino license<\/a> and putting the finishing touches on its purchase of Star Entertainment of Australia. Kim is now chairman of Star. Bally\u2019s is also building a casino in Chicago and figuring out next steps for its operating rights at the previous site of the Tropicana on the Las Vegas Strip.<\/p>\n<h2>Interesting Trump Ties<\/h2>\n<p>Should Standard General come to own <em>CNN<\/em>, it\u2019d mark another interesting intersection for the hedge fund with the Trump family. Not only is President Trump never shy about excoriating the cable news network, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cnn-reaches-deal-with-trump-advised-kalshi\/\">it recently partnered with<\/a> prediction market operator Kalshi &#8212; a company advised by the president\u2019s son, Don Jr.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Trumps may well look favorably upon Kim and Standard General regardless of the association with <em>CNN<\/em> because now that Bally\u2019s has a license to build a casino at Ferry Point in the Bronx, the gaming company must pay the Trump Organization $115 million. The Trump group previously held the lease rights to that golf course before selling those rights to Bally&#8217;s for $60 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/ballys-owner-standard-general-could-make-run-at-cnn\/\">Bally\u2019s Owner Standard General Could Make Run at CNN<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\">Casino.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Report suggests a Warner Bros. Discovery investor reached out to Soo Kim about potentially acquiring that company\u2019s cable networks, including CNN. Kim founded Standard General, the hedge fund that o<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mergers-acquisitions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coffeemug.club\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}