After Paramount Merger Talks Collapse, Skydance CEO David Ellison Tells Staff: ‘We Are Stronger Because of This Process’

EXCLUSIVE: Mark Wahlberg (The Family Plan) and Paul Walter Hauser (The Instigators) are set to team on Balls Up, an action comedy that Peter Farrelly will direct for Amazon MGM Studios.

Paramount Global‘s unorthodox Office of the CEO, which started as a presumed placeholder, is turning into a longer-term fixture poised to once again reshape the tempest-tossed company.

Paramount Global and its predecessor companies have gone through several tumultuous decades. Here’s a timeline of key events that led up to the company’s most recent M&A drama, in this week’s cover story: What Went Wrong: Inside Paramount’s Failed Merger Talks and the Battle to Salvage the Company. MARCH 4, 1987: Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements Inc.

Shari Redstone, it was nothing personal. But the longer the negotiations went on, the more Redstone fell out of love with the idea of marrying her family’s legacy to David Ellison’s Skydance Media. So on June 11, as board members of Paramount Global were about to hold a key meeting on the long-gestating deal to merge with Skydance, Redstone was out — even as those around her were still scrambling to get it done.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Christa D’Alimonte, Paramount Global‘s EVP, general counsel and secretary, is exiting at the end of the month after 12 years at the company and its predecessor Viacom. D’Alimonte on Tuesday informed her team that she will be leaving the company on June 28 (read the memo below).

Paramount Global General Counsel Christa D’Alimonte has told colleagues she will be exiting the company at the end of the month.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Dana White, chief executive of UFC, is one of the stars of the new Roku original docuseries “Fight Inc.: Inside the UFC,” touted as an “unprecedented” insider’s look at the company, marking its 30th anniversary. Earlier this month, White — a well-known supporter of Donald Trump — played a starring role in different production: Trump’s first TikTok video. Following footage of the ex-president greeting fans at UFC 302 in Newark, N.J., on June 1, the video shows White with Trump backstage at the fight.

EXCLUSIVE: We can tell you first that Joker and Deadpool 2 actress Zazie Beetz has signed on to headline They Will Kill You, the first feature from Nocturna, the horror label formed this year by Skydance and Andy & Barbara Muschietti. 

Paramount co-CEOs George Cheeks, Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy thanked staff in a memo today, obtained by Deadline, for a few tough months rocked by Skydance merger speculation. With that deal a no go, they said, they have plan, one mostly laid out at last week’s annual shareholders meeting, to take the company into the future.

This just in tonight from Skydance Boss David Ellison as Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone says “No” to Skydance’s offer to buy National Amusements. The Top Gun: Maverick and Geostorm producer has acknowledged to staff that Skydance’s bid to merge with Paramount has ended.

When David Ellison’s Skydance made a play for Paramount last fall it was how and when (not if) Shari Redstone would tie the knot. Paramount and Skydance worked together. He valued the studio and its crown jewel of a backlot and planned to keep the company together. He was offering her a nice bundle of cash for her stake in National Amusements.

After months of negotiations, Paramount‘s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has broken off merger talks with David Ellison‘s Skydance.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After more than six months of on-again-off-again talks, Shari Redstone has ended negotiations with David Ellison‘s Skydance Media about a prospective merger with Paramount Global. Redstone is Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder through National Amusements Inc., which owns 77% of the voting shares in Paramount.

Paramount Global, which continues to explore its M&A options, has updated the compensation plans for the three execs in the Office of the CEO and re-upped Chief People Officer Nancy Phillips.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor As an M&A event looms on the horizon for Paramount Global, the three execs in the conglomerate’s “Office of the CEO” are now eligible for stepped-up severance payments in the event of a sale or merger — and the company also will award them cash bonuses for the time they serve as co-CEOs. The move comes as Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, is evaluating a merger offer from David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which the Paramount Global board’s special committee has recommended.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Shari Redstone may have yet another offer on the table to buy National Amusements Inc., the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global — the latest twist in the months-long M&A drama swirling around the troubled media conglomerate. Erstwhile media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. is teaming with investment firm Bain Capital to put together an offer of up to $2.5 billion for Redstone’s National Amusements, sources confirmed.

Shares of Paramount Global edged lower Thursday, day three in the red, amid lingering uncertainty around Skydance’s latest offer. With bigger than anticipated sweeteners for Class B shareholders, it was approved by Par’s special board committee and sent on to controlling shareholder Shari Redstone but with no announcement forthcoming.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Paramount Global has a strong future ahead of it and so does broadcast television, despite the uncertainty that has enveloped Hollywood in general and Paramount in particular. That was the message sent Thursday by CBS chief George Cheeks, who last month was also tapped as one of three CEOs to steer Paramount Global through a period that is sure to be challenging no matter what happens with the company.

Netflix has found the voice of its Terminator.

A town hall for Paramount Global employees originally scheduled to take place Wednesday has been delayed until June 25.