As John Oliver might say, “A lot happened last week,” but there’s one news story that I wanted to highlight. Paramount aka Paramount Global aka the latest incarnation of CBS Corporation & Viacom aka Mithrandir (for certain brain-addled elves) has a buyer.
You can learn about it from an official notice, their own news division (CBS) talking about it, as well as:
- Associated Press (which offers some ‘color commentary’ about the players involved
- Reuters (which details some of the saga… and it has been a saga)
- CNBC (similar history and saga details)
- The Hollywood Reporter (with their industry POV)
Both NPR and Variety have some questions about the deal and what this bodes for the future, the former more far-reaching (e.g. how is this going to work?), the the latter more nitty-gritty (e.g., what properties, if any, will they sell off?). And, of course, KCRW’s “The Business” has some quality banter from right when the story broke (roughly minutes 2-8 of the 21-minute episode).
All the questions are on my mind as well. The fact that this is the third swing at a deal between Skydance and Paramount triggers Lucy-with-the-football response. The projected merger being finalized by 2025 only strengthens that feeling… because that’s several Internet lifetimes.
Oh, and then there’s some additional wrinkles with the deal and the organization.
For one, I put an asterisk up above in the title because Skydance will technically not be buying Paramount Global. They’ll be acquiring National Amusements a company that has a controlling stake in the current Paramount Global. Then, there will be a merger between Skydance and Paramount in a second phase, but billions will change hands first for National Amusements. If you’re thinking, “hey, isn’t that a theater chain?” you would be right. However, National Amusements was set up in 1936 by Michael Redstone, Sumner Redstone‘s father, and it’s been used to own a controlling stake in the various CBS/Viacom/Paramount corporate entities for decades. With the death of Sumner Redstone in 2020, ownership via trust went to Shari Redstone, Sumner’s daughter. And there has been contentiousness around leadership throughout the 2000s at least. Yes, the drama isn’t just on screen. There’s a reason I linked to the articles: going through the mergers and separations of the related companies is, at times, more confusing than figuring out the characters in Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon.
Besides Shari Redstone, Paramount has three presidents as opposed to a solitary CEO. Seriously, all three have the title “President and CEO” and while they each have defined portfolios, I’m not sure how the executive governance works in practice. One of the CEOs, Chris McCarthy, is sometimes listed as the “principal executive officer,” but, again, triumvirates vary in their dynamics — all the more so because I’m given to understand this is a recent leadership change. Organizational psychologists and anthropologists, feel free to weight in!
The question on at least seven to nine of you readers is what might this mean for Star Trek? The good news is that this deal, should it continue, may be the best chance for Paramount to continue as a unified entity rather than ignobly sold for IP parts. The bad news is there’s no guarantee there won’t be some selling between now and 2025. Apparently, the powers that be are looking for $2 billion in cost cuts and starships are expensive. These are also the powers-that-be that banished Prodigy from Paramount+, a streamer that in and of itself may be on someone’s mental chopping block.
So I’ll keep watching for more news (including if Prodigy gets another season on Netflix).
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