Lukas Matsson and the Gojo Deal
In Succession, tech mogul Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård) sought to buy Waystar Royco and fold it into his company, Gojo, but the deal kept getting hairier and hairier as the kids start pressed him for more cash.
Matsson has been compared to Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, but he doesn’t have a super obvious real-life inspiration.
There are also some similarities between Logan Roy trying to sell Waystar to Gojo and Rupert Murdoch selling his movie studio, 21st Century Fox, to Bob Iger-led Disney in 2019. That deal was first announced in 2017 and took two years to close, and the Matsson deal has been very slow on the show.
According to Vanity Fair again, the Disney deal really irked eldest son Lachlan Murdoch, who had just moved back to the U.S. in order to become his father’s successor after spending 10 peaceful years in Australia away from the family business. To then find a huge, prestigious arm of his future empire ripped away was, apparently, disappointing.
Sound kind of like Kendall?
Main Image: Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin on Succession.
Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published in May 2023 and has been updated and republished in light of Rupert Murdoch’s retirement.
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