Tech billionaire Larry Ellison will become the majority owner of CBS parent Paramount Global after his Skydance Media completes its purchase of the Redstone family’s interest in the company, Bloomberg reported. According to a filing with the US Federal Communications Commission, Ellison will own 77.5% of National Amusements, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, through a trust and series of corporations. The Oracle co-founder’s stake will give him significant influence over the future of the film and TV company.
According to the Bloomberg report, Shari Redstone is set to rake in $180 million in severance and other benefits from the deal. Is will be in addition to the fortune she will get for the sale of her National Amusements stock to Skydance Media.
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This comes a little over a week after Edgar Bronfman Jr. officially dropped his bid to acquire Paramount. That decision came just one week after the Seagram heir and former media mogul made a $6 billion bid to acquire Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. The company owns a majority of Paramount Global and is the owner of the famed Paramount movie studios.
The Paramount TV Studios group and Skydance Media first began merger talks back in April. However, a number of other Paramount suitors including Bronfman came forward since then.
Paramount has been courted recently by many suitors including Apollo Global Management and the owner of the Weather Channel Byron Allen. In December there were reports that Shari Redstone was looking at a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros, which operates the Warner Bros movie studios and cable television networks like CNN and HBO.
The days of the great American movie studios standing alongside the American auto industry and others as giants of American capitalism have long since gone. One by one, what were once seven titans, have whittled away. United Artists died, Columbia Pictures is now Sony Pictures and makes a faction of the movies it once did and Fox sold out entirely to Disney.
Founded in 2006 by David Ellison, the son of entrepreneur Larry Ellison who founded Oracle computers, Skydance Media is a diversified entertainment company that focuses on creating high-budget films, television shows, and other media experiences. They’ve produced hits like Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible sequels, and Transformers films and television shows like Grace and Frankie, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Reacher.
David Ellison will serve as Paramount’s chairman and CEO.
Larry Ellison is an American businessman and entrepreneur best known for co-founding the software giant Oracle Corporation in 1977. He served as Oracle’s CEO for 37 years until 2014 and is currently the company’s chairman and chief technology officer. Under his leadership, Oracle grew from a startup to the largest database software supplier and the second-largest supplier of business applications globally.
As of March 2024, Larry Ellison is listed by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the eighth-wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $142.2 billion.
