Sony, Apollo Make Formal Overture To Paramount Board To Discuss Potential $26 Billion Deal

Paramount Global’s EVP, Chief Communications and Corporate Marketing Officer Julia Phelps will leave the company at the end of May.

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.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter It’s been less than two years since the close of Nexstar’s acquisition of The CW and the network’s primetime slate could not look more different. In addition to the broadcaster’s shifted focus to sports, unscripted fare and foreign imports/co-productions, The CW will soon be getting into the original TV movie business.

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.

Should Sony and Apollo get their hooks into Paramount Global their strategy would be to keep theatrical release output steady between both studios –not reduced– while cutting the more burdensome parts of the conglom, read auctioning off CBS, the linear channels like MTV and Paramount Plus streaming service.

The golf stars against Rory McIlroy's return to the PGA board have reportedly been revealed.

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.

Another big Hollywood name is rooting for a Paramount-Skydance deal as Jeffrey Katzenberg says that outcome would be “a great win for Paramount and for people in the industry.”

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Paramount Global goes back to playing the field this week with two suitors still pursuing the company that has been surrounded by a highly public M&A drama for months. And it’s unlikely to end any time soon. The company reached the end of its 30-day exclusive negotiating window with Skydance Media on May 3 without coming to an agreement.

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

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.

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.

Jeff Zucker and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird IMI, the new Abu Dhabi-backed owner of All3Media, has pulled out of its deal to buy the UK’s Daily Telegraph following press freedom concerns.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The three Paramount Global executives installed to run the company after Bob Bakish was removed as CEO sought to reassure employees that they have a long-term strategy. On Monday, Paramount Global said Bakish was stepping down as CEO and leaving the board. In his place, the company established an “Office of the CEO” committee led by three divisional heads: George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The recent broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII boosted Paramount Global‘s first quarter of 2024, stabilizing advertising revenue at its TV operations, as the company’s streaming operations added more than 3 million subscribers and cut losses there by more than 40%. Overall, Paramount narrowed its first quarter operating losses while seeing a 6% uptick in revenue, due in large part to audience and advertiser interest in its Big Game presentation, which set a new viewing record.

After trying to reassure Wall Street with their brief opening remarks at the Paramount Global earnings call, the trio executives named to the newly formed Office of the CEO looked to do the same with the company’s employees rattled by the sudden ouster of longtime CEO Bob Bakish amid sale negotiations with Skydance.

Paramount Global‘s CEO Bob Bakish is out. The executive who has been a presence at several iterations of the company since 1997 will exit, effective immediately. A triumvirate of division heads — Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy — will step in to lead the company for now in a new office of the CEO.

David Ellison’s Skydance has presented Paramount Global board’s special committee with a revised offer to take control of the company, Deadline has learned. Terms weren’t immediately available, story will be updated when they are. The new proposal is likely designed to make a deal more palatable to Paramount investors beyond controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, something that her family holding company NAI had requested.

Shakira, Ed Sheeran, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Neil Young and more. The offer put forward by Concord was $1.25 per share (£1).Blackstone has already acquired the rights to songs by Justin Bieber and Justin Timberlake, and this current deal will see more than 65,000 more tracks added to its catalogue.As highlighted by Reuters, Blackstone has also invested in U.S.