Bob Bakish is officially not CEO of entertainment giant Paramount after biting the hand that fed him. Bakish estranged Shari RedstoneChairman of Paramount and CEO of National Amusements, which controls 77% of Paramount’s voting stock.
The traditional studio behind blockbusters Top Gun And Mission unimaginable and classics included The Godfather and the previous cable networks Comedy Central, MTV and CBS itself ousted Bakish in the midst of a fateful takeover battle. There isn’t any single CEO lined up to exchange him on the helm of the $8 billion company. Instead, the role of CEO can be taken on by three Paramount division heads who will function co-CEOs. The trio are expected to be amongst the corporate’s leading strategic negotiators because it wages a messy takeover battle with billions at stake and multiple suitors lining up to purchase it.
Bakish lost Redstone’s loyalty in a way that reflects the treatment she endured from her father, the late billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone. The elder Redstone was known to belittle her in meetings in front of executives, speak sick of her within the press and undermine her possibilities of succeeding him as CEO. The Wall Street Journal reported Bakish, behind Redstone’s back, launched a possible streaming partnership with Comcast earlier this yr, which Redstone said was a foul deal for the corporate and will complicate a possible sale. Redstone also complained after Bakish resisted multiple offers for the corporate’s Showtime division, one in every of which was reportedly value nearly $6 billion. Bakish cut dividends by nearly 80% last yr, depriving Redstone (Paramount Global’s largest voting shareholder) of a key source of income.
Meanwhile, Paramount is mired in probably the most dramatic corporate takeover battles in recent memory: Dueling offers from a gaggle led by Skydance Media, Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s son David, and a joint $26 billion money offer from Sony and personal equity firm Apollo. The different structures of the 2 deals pitted the interests of Redstone and Bakish against one another. Skydance’s proposal would pay Redstone a hefty premium for its voting shareswhich allows him to take control of the corporate without having to supply non-voting shareholders anything aside from equity in the corporate –The entire deal would cost lower than $10 billion. Apollo’s proposal would offer each shareholder a smaller premium, which can be more popular with Bakish and Paramount’s broader investor base – but That would lead to a much smaller windfall for Redstone, who also controls a lot voting stock in the corporate that she could potentially block it.
Bakish resigned just yesterday Paramount held an unusually transient earnings callspent only nine minutes with analysts and refused to reply questions before playing Mission unimaginable Theme song. Bakish is anticipated to receive a severance package value over $50 million.
Stand out
The chaos at the highest of Paramount goes far beyond the takeover battle of the previous few months. Its stock has lost about 50% of its value within the last 12 months, however it was a tumultuous investment even before Bakish was named CEO in 2016. Under the Redstone family, its majority owners, Paramount has been stricken by scandals and company mismanagement for many years, and Bakish’s resignation is just the most recent twist.
Bakish has spent his entire profession in media, joining Paramount in 1997 and dealing his way up the ranks. In 2007, he was named CEO of Viacom, the Redstone holding company that when owned Paramount Studios, and oversaw the corporate until its merger with CBS in 2019, after which he was named CEO of Paramount.
More importantly, Bakish rose to prominence at Paramount with the support and loyalty of Shari Redstone, who as Sumner Redstone held a front-row seat and ruled the gathering of media properties well into his 90s. As Sumner Redstone grew older and his relationship together with his daughter deteriorated, Bakish’s role in supporting her eventually proved crucial. His departure, then, as Paramount’s stock falters and the corporate teeters on the point of a takeover, is just the most recent twist in a long-running saga seemingly straight out of the HBO series “Succession,” which is claimed to be not less than partly inspired by the Redstone family inspired.
The tangled web of an old studio
Was of utmost importance It was founded in 1912, making it the longest-running studio in Hollywood. It was purchased in 1994 for just over $10 billion by Sumner Redstone, a former drive-in theater operator who built an empire and acquired large stakes in entertainment firms resembling Viacom, MGM and Time, Inc. Almost six years later Redstone paid almost $40 billion for CBSthereby solidifying a bona fide media empire, named National Amusements after its initial drive-in fortunes.
Simply put, Redstone’s various properties dominated the media landscape of the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. Although housed in separate publicly traded firms, its Viacom properties included several of cable television’s crown jewels CBS dethroned NBC in 2006 becoming America’s most-watched channel, a title it still holds to this present day. However, as Sumner Redstone grew older, things began to unravel.
The elder Redstone, who turned 90 in 2013, was a mercurial leader known for his strained relationship together with his family (particularly his daughter Shari, who has since taken control of his company) and an extended series of relationships with younger ladies In his later years, the query arose as to who controlled his private life New York Times Reporters Rachel Abrams and James B. Stewart’s 2023 report on Redstone and his company, “Unscripted.”
Sumner’s relationships were expensive. Abrams and Stewart report that Sumner paid a complete of over $7 million to Terry Holbrook, a former model and cheerleader he dated in 2001. A source conversant in Sumner’s trust said he modified it greater than 40 times to incorporate women he met and that many ladies received tens of millions of dollars each. Towards the top of his life, Sumner was continuously accompanied by Sydney Holland and Manuela Herzer. two women, each greater than 40 years his junior, who controlled who had access to him. According to Abrams and Stewart, this was a key think about the growing rift between Sumner and Shari, who had not spoken to one another for several years.
Redstone’s mental health deteriorated when he was in his late nineties, culminating in a 2016 case An independent medical adviser concluded that Redstone was incapacitated and needed a legal representative to guard his interests. That same yr, Redstone stepped away from day-to-day management of his $40 billion business and turned over the reins to his daughter Shari. Sumner Redstone died in 2020.
Shari Redstone ruffled feathers as She supported Bakish as CEO of the joint ViacomCBS company after the merger in 2019She selected him over then-CBS CEO Les Moonves, a longtime ally of her father who was considered a possible candidate for the role. Strong backlash from Moonves and a lawsuit from CBS prompted Redstone, CBS’s majority shareholder, to file amendments to the corporate’s bylaws to implement Bakish’s appointment. (Moonves was fired in 2019 Reports surfaced that he had sexually harassed quite a few women.) The chaotic ordeal left Bakish allied with Shari in running their latest three way partnership.
However, in the next years, Paramount under Bakish – with the support of Shari Redstone – failed to fulfill investor expectations. Paramount Global shares have fallen about 80% since their 2019 peak despite initial excitement about Bakish’s plans for international expansionits big bet on the launch of Paramount+ in 2020 was consistently losing a whole lot of tens of millions of dollars per quarter and struggling to realize a foothold within the streaming wars.
