Skydance Media submitted an updated filing with the FCC to reflect that David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, will hold 100% percent of the Ellison family’s voting interests in the newly combined Skydance-Paramount.
According to the amended FCC filing Tuesday, David Ellison’s role will be chairman and CEO of New Paramount, combining the assets of Skydance and Paramount Global after the deal closes, expected in the first half of 2025. He also is designated as “sole manager” of the Ellison family entities — Hikouki LLC, Furaito LLC, and Aozora LLC — through which the Ellison family will own and control National Amusements Inc. (currently the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global) and New Paramount.
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Previously, Skydance documentation filed with the FCC said Larry Ellison, the multibillionaire founder of Oracle and David Ellison’s father, would be the majority shareholder of NAI and control the newly merged Paramount-Skydance.
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Pinnacle Media Ventures, formed as special purpose vehicles to hold the Ellison family’s interest in NAI and Paramount, will own 77.5% of National Amusements post-close. The remaining 22.5% of NAI will be owned by Gerry Cardinale, head of private-equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, which teamed with Skydance and the Ellisons on the NAI-Paramount deal.
The FCC filing disclosing the ownership stakes of NAI is required because the transaction involves the transfer of CBS’s 28 owned-and-operated local TV stations. The Skydance group’s filing with the FCC is an application requesting that the agency approve the transfer of control of television broadcast licenses. The updated Oct. 29 FCC filing is available via this link.
Per the filing, after the close of the Skydance-NAI-Paramount deal, the board of directors of NAI will initially comprise “no more than seven individuals.” The Ellison family (i.e., David Ellison) will have voting control of the board with the right to appoint up to five members. RedBird will have the right to appoint up to two individuals to the NAI board.
In July, after months of on-and-off negotiations, Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, clinched a deal to merge the media conglomerate with Skydance — ending her family’s decades-long ownership of Paramount, CBS and Viacom. (An eleventh-hour bid led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. came to naught.) Since then, Paramount has engaged in layoffs and restructuring aimed at cutting 15% of its U.S. headcount, as part of efforts to slash $500 million in annual costs.
Paramount Global earlier this month granted its three co-CEOs — George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins — an additional provision in their employment agreements that will let them quit and receive severance benefits if they are demoted from their co-CEO roles. The trio of execs also were each granted $3 million in stock under Paramount’s long-term incentive program.
