David Ellison’s Skydance Media, along with Redbird Capital, formally announced their $8 billion plan to acquire legacy media company Paramount Global on Monday. David Ellison, Skydance founder, as chairman and CEO, and Jeff Shell, former NBCUniversal CEO, as president.
“Obviously a big chunk of the company is in the linear world and we know that linear is challenged and declining,” Shell said.
But he said Paramount still likes those businesses and plans to run them in a different way.
He called CBS an unmatched asset with amazing reach. “We will continue to fuel that reach and we’re really happy about not just CBS, but the whole ecosystem of stations and affiliates . . . because it will drive our content for decades in front of us.” (Broadcasting & Cable)
July 8, 2024 at QZVX
Jason Remington says:
Significant cost cuts are coming. Even before the deal closing, Paramount said in a company memo that it will move forward on actions such as “streamlining teams, eliminating duplicative functions, and reducing the size of our workforce.” In a call early Monday with investors, Shell said $2 billion in cost efficiencies have been identified, adding that “we’ve got to run these businesses in a different way” amid ongoing media disruption.