A CEO Firing, and the Chaos at Paramount

The Town with Matthew Belloni

The Ringer

Society & Culture

4.3 • 847 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Matt is joined by Lucas Shaw to discuss the ousting of Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, why it happened now, and whether it affects a potential deal moving forward. They then update their predictions in the Skydance, vs. Apollo deal, and wonder what would happen to Paramount Global and its new three-headed CEO triumvirate if there is no deal. Matt finishes the show with an opening weekend box office prediction for the upcoming action movie ‘Fall Guy.' For a 20 percent discount on Matt’s Hollywood insider newsletter, ‘What I’m Hearing ...,’ click here. Email us your thoughts! [email protected] Host: Matt Belloni Guest: Lucas Shaw Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Jessie Lopez Theme Song: Devon Renaldo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about the Press Box podcast.
0:05.9	The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports or politics or pop culture,
0:13.9	and wants to understand how that news really gets made.
0:17.4	We have news shows every Monday and Thursday.
0:19.7	We have long interviews with everyone from
0:21.5	John Crackhour to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day.
0:27.2	Let us help you sort it out. Join us on the press box.
0:33.7	It is Tuesday, April 30th. Another day, another ridiculous twist in the saga of Paramount.
0:40.9	Yesterday, Bob Backish, the CEO of the company for the past seven years, was abruptly fired.
0:46.6	Technically, he stepped down, as they always do. He'll get $50 million to go away.
0:51.1	But it's a pretty major development, considering Paramount is in the middle of a potential
0:55.3	sale. If you remember, Sherry Redstone, whose family company controls Paramount Global,
1:01.0	she's in exclusive talks with Skydance media run by the Ellison family for a complicated
1:06.1	transaction to buy out Redstone for $2 billion and then merge Skydance with Paramount.
1:12.5	Sherry really wants that deal to happen, but there's been a shareholder revolt slash
1:17.1	resistance to that deal because they would not make out nearly as well as she would.
1:22.5	Another person who didn't like the Skydance deal, Bob Backish.
1:26.4	He's been privately critical of the whole thing,
1:28.5	in part because there wouldn't be a place for him at the merged company, and in part because
1:32.2	another deal is potentially on the table, a $26 billion offer from Apollo, the private equity
1:38.6	firm, which would take care of all the paramount shareholders, not just primarily sherry.
1:44.5	Skydance upped its offer over the weekend to try to head off that criticism.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.