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Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA) will be controlled by Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle (ORCL), through a series of trusts and companies after a group led by his son David’s firm Skydance Media takes over the Redstone empire.
The Ellison family’s special purpose entity Pinnacle Media will own around 77.5% of Paramount’s (PARA) parent firm National Amusements, a filing with the Federal Communications Commission showed.
Sayonara, controlled by Larry Ellison’s trust, is one of the family entities that will control NAI. RedBird Capital Partners, an investor in SkyDance Media, will own the remaining 22.5%.
The dramatic bidding war for Paramount (PARA) officially ended last week, with the over $8B deal from Skydance making it to the finish line.
The two-step deal would initially see Skydance and its partners acquire NAI for $2.4B in cash, after which Skydance will merge with Paramount (PARA) and reduce the latter’s debt by investing around $6B.
Once the deal closes, David Ellison will become CEO of the new Paramount. Former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell, who currently works at RedBird, will be the new company’s president.
The deal would see Paramount’s (PARA) control transferred from one wealthy family, whose patriarch Sumner Redstone built the media empire, to another – led by tech tycoon Larry Ellison.
Shari Redstone, Sumner’s daughter and current chair of Paramount (PARA), will rake in $180M in severance and other benefits in addition to about $350M from the sale of her 20% stake in the Skydance deal, sources told Bloomberg.
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