David Ellison Woos A-Listers to Boost Flagging Paramount Bid

No matter destiny befalls Paramount World after the smoke clears, one of many Hollywood Trivial Pursuit questions sometime will probably be which heavy hitters have issued statements of assist for Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Paramount’s holding firm, Nationwide Amusements Inc. — and which didn’t. 

Even because the Paramount particular committee handed on the provide from David Ellison’s firm Could 4, sources say the Skydance-RedBird alliance has not given up. The premise, a supply with data of the scenario tells The Hollywood Reporter, is that the rival Apollo/Sony Photos provide now up for Paramount’s consideration will fail for a number of causes, with Skydance nonetheless ready within the wings.

So regardless of a lot Wall Road skepticism over a proposed deal that favors controlling shareholder Shari Redstone over different traders, “Skydance has been on a particularly aggressive PR marketing campaign within the final month to persuade everybody how respectable they’re,” says a distinguished media mogul.

The corporate appears to have discovered success with Jim Cameron, who instructed the Monetary Occasions on Could 5 that he was a fan of the deal. Others — together with Taylor Sheridan of the Yellowstone universe — have proved more durable to get. You may wager that Tom Cruise’s assist was additionally solicited given his deep and lengthy relationship with Paramount, however he, too, has stored silent. A rep for Cruise declined remark; A rep for Sheridan denies the incident.

Additionally quoted in that FT piece was Endeavor and TKO’s Ari Emanuel, who mentioned Ellison is “a pure acquirer” of the corporate. “David has an actual film enterprise [with] huge franchises,” he mentioned. (Ellison is an investor in Paramount franchises together with Mission: Unattainable, Star Trek, Transformers and High Gun however doesn’t personal any of them.) “Everyone is in enterprise with him — Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Paramount and Disney all have an excellent relationship with David.” Beforehand, on April 23, Emanuel instructed Reuters: “One of many issues that persons are underestimating … is [Ellison’s] sense of tech, in comparison with a few of the different guys … perhaps along with his father’s assist or simply his upbringing. What they do with Paramount+ and all that different stuff I believe will probably be refreshing.”

Neither the FT nor Reuters famous a element that appears related: Emanuel represents Ellison. Provided that Emanuel has a number of causes to need the Skydance deal to make, his assist doesn’t present a lot of a fig leaf for Redstone if she had been to circle again to it. (Additionally, keep in mind, this is similar Ari who instructed a Bloomberg panel simply months in the past, in October 2023, that whereas he thought Warner Bros. Discovery and Disney would determine the challenges of the second, “I might not put my cash on Paramount.”)

Although not many Hollywood gamers have spoken up in favor of Skydance, nobody on the town desires to lose one other main studio — and one other purchaser of content material — after Fox disappeared into Disney. And it’s assumed that if Apollo and Sony Photos prevail with their rival $26 billion provide, Paramount will basically vanish. That helps clarify why CAA’s Bryan Lourd additionally went public, telling Reuters on April 23 that if Ellison might pull off the Paramount deal, he can be “an owner-operator that truly loves movie and tv and tales, and that’s wanted now greater than ever.” Not fairly an argument from a enterprise viewpoint, however who doesn’t love love? (Lourd has declined additional remark.)

Cameron can be feeling the love, telling the FT that he loves “the Ellison concept,” although there may be scant info on what, precisely, Skydance would do with Paramount’s fading cable channels and money-hemorrhaging streamer. One other voice that entered the fray: Jeffrey Katzenberg, who on Could 6 instructed the viewers on the Axios BFD Talks: Los Angeles {that a} Skydance deal can be “a fantastic win for Paramount and for individuals within the business.” Whether or not that persuades Paramount traders — properly, most likely not.

The opposite messaging coming from the Ellison alliance is that the members of the three-man management group of CBS chief George Cheeks, Paramount Photos’ Brian Robbins, and head of Showtime/MTV Leisure Studios and Paramount Media Networks Chris McCarthy — who’re working Paramount as co-CEOs both quickly or not — are already at one another’s throats. Sources near that group deny that declare vehemently. 

As for Emanuel’s Could 5 remark that Ellison has nice relationships with everybody on the town, that appears to be an exaggeration. He has usually irked Paramount’s movie studio management over a wide range of issues, together with claiming credit score for Paramount hits that Skydance helped finance.

In the meantime, on Could 4, Oracle of Omaha Warren Buffett mentioned at his firm’s annual assembly that he had dumped his total stake in Paramount. Buffett had began out with a $2.6 billion funding in Could 2022, after which purchased much more, making him the largest shareholder within the firm (with non-voting shares, as Redstone and NAI have voting management). “We bought all of it, and we misplaced fairly a bit of cash,” Buffett mentioned. Such a vote of no confidence might hardly have landed pleasantly with the remaining Paramount shareholders.

Making issues worse, Buffett — who has beforehand expressed skepticism concerning the streaming wars which have price Paramount and different studios a lot — added chilling phrases for everybody struggling to maintain a legacy media enterprise afloat. “I definitely appeared more durable about the entire query of what individuals do with their leisure time and what the governing ideas are of working an leisure enterprise of any kind, whether or not it’s sports activities or motion pictures or no matter it could be,” he mentioned. “I believe I’m smarter now than I used to be a pair years in the past, however I additionally assume I’m poorer as a result of I acquired the data within the method I did.”

Alex Weprin contributed to this report. 

A model of this story first appeared within the Could 8 problem of The Hollywood Reporter journal. Click on right here to subscribe.