Paramount’s Communications & Corporate Marketing Chief To Exit, Group Will Report To Brian Robbins On Interim Basis

After CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach last month permanently closed the door to Blue Bloods continuing beyond its upcoming final 8 episodes this fall, one of Paramount Global’s Office of the CEO members today opened the door to the franchise potentially carrying on.

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

As Paramount Global controlling shareholder Shari Redstone mulls the terms of a merger between her conglom and Skydance, the network/studio/streaming service trotted out their best and brightest CEO troika this early AM in annual global stockholders meet to tout their hit parade of 14 billion dollar revenue earning franchises across all mediums, their assurance to cut $500 million in overhead, and maximize shareholder value and profits.

Shari Redstone, Paramount Global‘s non-executive chair and controlling shareholder, sought to sell shareholders at the company’s annual meeting Tuesday on the potential of the three-member Office of the CEO.

Paramount Global shares rose 7.5% to close at $12.80 Monday on the news that a long-awaited merger with Skydance Media moved closer to completion.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paramount Global‘s months-long M&A drama may soon be coming to a conclusion. The special committee established by Paramount Global’s board of directors to evaluate M&A proposals has reached an agreement with David Ellison’s Skydance Media and his private-equity backers on the terms of a complicated deal that would merge Skydance and Paramount while keeping Paramount publicly traded, Variety has confirmed. Skydance and its partners, RedBird Capital and KKR, sweetened the original buyout offer to make it more attractive to nonvoting shareholders of Paramount Global.

“It’s still progressing.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After months of on-again-off-again haggling, Skydance Media submitted a newly revised offer for Paramount Global. The revised bid would reduce the amount Skydance and its financial partners would pay Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, and reallocate that more equitably to the company’s nonvoting Class B shareholders, Variety has confirmed. Skydance would also put in more cash upfront to swing the deal, sources said.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have officially been married six years! Amazing!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Julia Phelps, Paramount Global‘s executive VP and chief communications and corporate marketing officer, is exiting after almost 20 years with the company and predecessor Viacom. Phelps had long worked with Bob Bakish, who was ousted as CEO of the company last month and replaced by a three-exec committee. Phelps, in a memo to her team Friday, said she will leave Paramount at the end of May.

Shari Redstone strolled onto the red carpet in New York City tonight for the premiere of Paramount Pictures IF, John Krasinski’ star-studded PG adventure that opens this weekend. She was there to support studio chief Brian Robbins.

Lioness — the Taylor Sheridan drama starring Zoe Saldaña and Laysla De Oliveira — has been renewed for a second season by Paramount+.

Paramount Advertising President John Halley was preparing to preside over an upfront pitch to Publicis, one of the four major holding companies in the ad business, when big news crossed the wire.

Warren Buffett says he has sold all of his shares in Paramount Global at a significant loss.

Paramount Global says Chris McMarthy is the company’s “interim principal executive officer,” a necessity required by the SEC that apparently does not signal he has more decision-making power among a trio of top executives who stepped up to replace Bob Bakish this week in a new Office of the CEO.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor UPADTED: After months of M&A talks, Paramount Global and controlling shareholder Shari Redstone might be going it alone after all — for now. Insiders tell Variety that the expectation at the company is that neither of the two offers in play — Skydance Media-RedBird Capital Partners and Sony Pictures Entertainment-Apollo Global Management — will come to fruition. And Redstone is said to have reluctantly concluded that a deal with David Ellison’s Skydance, a longtime partner of Paramount Pictures, will not be possible.

The clock is ticking down to midnight, the end of a month-long exclusive negotiating window between Paramount Global and Skydance Media. The David Ellison company has been circling Paramount for months and lobbed several offers to buy out Shari Redstone‘s controlling stake, backed by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital.

Three days after he was named to the newly formed Office of the CEO of Paramount Global, George Cheeks, President and CEO of CBS, faced reporters at the unveiling of the broadcast network’s fall 2024 schedule.

Partners Sony and Apollo have formally reached out to Paramount‘s special board committee asking to discuss a potential $26 billion offer, Deadline has learned. It comes as Par’s exclusive negotiating window with David Ellison‘s Skydance is set to expire.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In the latest twist in Paramount Global‘s M&A saga, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management reportedly have made a bid to take Paramount private with an all-cash buyout offer of $26 billion. Sony and private-equity giant Apollo submitted an offer letter Wednesday to Paramount Global, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The report comes as Paramount Global board’s special committee established to consider M&A proposals is evaluating the best and final offer from Skydance Media to merge Paramount and Skydance, while keeping Paramount Global public.