Paramount Global/Skydance merger - Deadline: Bob Bakish To Step Down As Paramount Global CEO Amid Skydance Talks

Story from Deadline:

Paramount Global is set to announce as early as Monday morning that Bob Bakish is stepping down as CEO amid talks with Skydance and ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings that afternoon.

News Bakish might exit started circulating Friday. Paramount’s controlling shareholder and executive chair Shari Redstone, while once clearly on the same page with the chief executive, is said to be unhappy with some of his more recent strategic moves including a decision not to unload Showtime and an aborted sale process for BET. Deadline has also heard that Bakish is not a fan of a deal with David Ellison’s Skydance, in opposition to Redstone. The two companies are towards the end of a exclusive month-long negotiating period.

Paramount is reporting first quarter earnings after market close Monday. Bakish is not expected to be on the call.

It’s not clear how the company would replace him. Reports suggest the possibility of creating of an office of the CEO led by division heads including Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy. Robbins is president & CEO of Paramount Pictures & Nickelodeon and chief content officer, Movies and Kids & Family, Paramount+; Cheeks is president-CEO of CBS, and chief content officer, News and Sports, Paramount+; McCarthy is President & CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks.

Bakish has been with the company for decades and was named chief executive of the newly combined ViacomCBS in 2019, a deal pushed through by Shari Redstone. He had previously been CEO of Viacom. The company changed its name to Paramount Global in 2022.

The company said recently that four directors will be stepping down from the board at the annual meeting in June.

The near constant drama around Paramount started last fall, as the company began to seriously explore a sale with streaming losses and linear declines squeezing its financials. Skydance, backed by deep-pocketed Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, has the outline of a deal in place and the sides started exclusive negotiations April 3. Meanwhile. Sony teamed up with Apollo and is interested in making an offer as well. The partners are waiting in the wings in case the Skydance deal falls through.

The deal contemplated with Skydance is complex. It involves first acquiring Shari Redstone’s family holding company NAI, which controls Paramount Global, then merging it with Skydance.