By the time you read to the end of this sentence, Shari Redstone may have made a deal with David Ellison's Skydance. Or not.
Days after reports surfaced that Skydance had finally reached an agreement with the Paramount special committee, Redstone took a moment to consider whether to pull the trigger on a complex deal that would end her control of the entertainment empire formed by her late father. It stopped.
While thousands of Paramount employees and the media world wait, the pot is being stirred. Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav may have added a new element to the mix by expressing interest in acquiring CBS and Paramount Global's TV stations from Redstone or Ellison, as the case may be. And John Lasseter, the leader of Skydance's animation division whose deal with Paramount was deemed positive, has been absent from work for several weeks, according to sources. Skydance sources said Lasseter is working from home while recovering from surgery and that such information could only come from potential Ellison deal adversaries.
Meanwhile, Redstone's friend Steven Paul baby geniusesWell, Universe, which Jon Voight also controls, jumped at Redstone's offer to buy a majority stake in National Amusements, the holding company that controls Paramount.
As the process progressed more than a month after Skydance made its “best and final” offer, Redstone grew angry with Ellison at times, sources say. It's unclear why she was angry. Some sources believe that Skydance's refusal to indemnify her in the event of a shareholder lawsuit if her deal goes through is to blame. At first, those lawsuits seemed to have been brought by non-voting “Class B” shareholders who were upset that the Skydance deal would have paid them more than they paid Redstone. Skydance then stepped up its offer for non-voting shareholders, reducing Redstone's purchase price for National Amusements from $2.5 billion to $2.25 billion. That might be another reason for Redstone's anger. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that Paul's offer for a controlling stake in National Amusements is worth roughly $2.5 billion.
Another reason for Redstone's anger was that Ellison was an attractive trading partner because he suggested that his group of buyers would keep the empire that Redstone's father had built more or less intact. But one media executive familiar with both sides of the negotiations said: “The Ellison people have been very good at not saying what they actually intend to do. “There’s no obligation for them, but I don’t know if they want to stay in the broadcasting or streaming business.” It is unknown what Ellison personally promised Redstone, but it is possible that he cheated on her about something, which she took as a breach of her promise. For example, WBD may have been talking informally about buying CBS from someone who could sell it.
Or perhaps you're thinking that if you want to start selling assets, it might be better to sell them yourself. It is clear that there is another way. It could also sell off some parts or sign a streaming partnership with NBCUniversal. However, Zaslav hinted at his interest in the acquisition at the recent Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference. WBD is a “healthy company” and will look for new opportunities over the next two to three years, he said. “There will be some players who will want to get out of the business,” he said. Some companies may want to integrate their streaming business with other businesses. So I think we will look opportunistic during that period,” he added.
Zaslav is said to be coveting a broadcast network that would leverage its cable portfolio and put WBD on a more equal footing with NBCU and Disney, which support sports rights. With WBD likely to lose NBA games, the deal with CBS would allow Zaslav to merge TNT Sports with CBS Sports, giving his company NFL, Masters and broader college sports rights while also incorporating the March Madness tournament . point. Of course, WBD could achieve widespread cost savings and synergies by combining CBS News and CNN, continuing a deal that was discussed and then abandoned in the early 2000s. WBD sources with knowledge of Zaslav's thinking point out that the company does not currently own a broadcast network or station group, making it one of the few potential buyers without serious regulatory issues.
Meanwhile, questions are swirling in the animation community about the absence of Lasseter, the former creative chief of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Skydance Animation was touted as an attractive component of a potential Skydance-Paramount connection (although Paramount has its own animation department with IPs like SpongeBob SquarePants), but in reality the picture was complicated. luck, the first feature film from Lasseter-led Skydance Animation, received middling reviews after its 2022 release on AppleTV+ but has performed steadily on the streaming service. (The film began production before Lasseter was hired, but was reworked at great cost after his arrival.) Sources say Skydance Animation's relationship with Apple may be due to the tech giant's concerns that other planned projects would be too costly and not creatively strong enough. It is said that he exploded when he concluded that he did not do it. One stumbling block was that the film was planned to be hand-drawn. ray armyat Incredibles Director Brad Bird earned over $150 million.
Skydance then purchased animation deals with other studios that had their own animation departments, but no one came forward. In October 2023, Skydance moved its animated feature slate to Netflix. This means that none of Lasseter's films have a chance at a meaningful theatrical release. Especially against that backdrop, Lasseter's health is key. The material changes could upend Skydance's deal with the streamer, sources said.
Another deal-breaker theory is that Redstone is going through a Kubler-Ross stage of grief over losing control of the empire his sometimes brutally critical father built and his status as a regular at the annual Sun. Valley big game retreat with the 2024 event starting in about a month. According to sources, Skydance has now offered Redstone some sort of honorary title and compensation to make the deal more enticing.
Maybe it will help, maybe not. A longtime Hollywood insider said he was surprised by the messiness and length of the deal process. He suspects the emotional aspect of the deal may have simply proven overwhelming for Redstone. “There are two ways to look at it,” he says. “The first is negotiation. And the other thing is that losing all the brain power you have is a matter of personal significance.” “It’s probably the dumbest sales process in the history of a public company,” says another prominent media veteran.
Rebecca Keegan contributed to this report.