There is a new monarch in Hollywood. His name is David Ellison and he is 41 years old. His independent production company, Skydance, founded just 14 years ago, has acquired one of the biggest prizes in the industry, the legendary Paramount studios, which have more than 100 years of history. The operation of more than 8 billion dollars (7.394 billion euros) has finally been closed this week after months of courtship of Shari Redstone, who controlled the house that made recent hits such as Top Gun: Maverick, Mission Impossible and the saga of TransformersRedstone, the heiress of an old media empire in trouble, has handed over the baton to a young businessman who promises to bring Paramount fully into the 21st century and who seeks to make the company a media and technological hybrid capable of competing in the ecosystem of digital platforms, she told the newspaper. Financial Times.
“Given the changes in the industry, we want to strengthen Paramount’s future while ensuring that content is king (…) We look forward to the transaction with Skydance allowing Paramount continued success in a rapidly changing environment,” Redstone said last Sunday in the statement announcing the sale of the majority stake in the studio. This share package was controlled by National Amusements, a giant media conglomerate built by his father, Sumner Redstone, which included Viacom, owner of the CBS network —the most watched in the United States—, MTV and Nickelodeon, aimed at children.
Paramount’s new horizon has been celebrated this week by the major players in the media industry. The merger coincided with the big summer retreat organized by the investment bank Allen & Co. in Sun Valley, Idaho. “Putting Paramount in such solid hands and with new money is a very good thing for the sector,” said David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, on Tuesday.
Also in attendance at the Sun Valley event were Disney CEO Bob Iger; tech mogul Peter Thiel; Thrive financier Josh Kushner; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and others. Also in attendance was a very smiling Shari Redstone, who gave reporters a somewhat cryptic message: “Together we will save the world!”
Just weeks ago, Redstone had rejected an offer from Skydance to buy Paramount, forcing Ellison to improve his final offer after six months of negotiations. In the meantime, other Los Angeles giants, such as studio Sony and the movie titan private equityMarc Rowan’s Apollo Global Management approached the Redstone family to see if they could take over the business.
The Ellison name is also synonymous with power in the industry. David, although raised by his mother, is one of the sons of the eccentric tycoon Larry Ellison, one of the founders of Oracle. His father, 79 years old and with a fortune of 15 billion dollars, was indirectly involved in the transaction with the capital firm RedBird. His daughter Megan, David’s sister, is also one of the most prominent figures in Hollywood: she is the president of the company Annapurna, which produced the Oscar-winning film Her, directed by Spike Jonze and starring Joaquin Phoenix.
David Ellison is an admirer of the likes of Steve Jobs and David Geffen. And he has set himself the goal of the merger to breathe new life into the business of Paramount, a veteran studio that has had trouble adapting to the times. streaming. This has seen its revenues decline, despite having one of the most representative catalogues of old Hollywood. Founded in 1912, the studio managed to become an emblem of the industry in the 1960s thanks to Robert Evans, a former actor who, as head of production, approved the filming of Roman Polanski classics such as Rosemary and Chinatown’s Baby, in addition to The Godfather and The conversationdirected by Francis Ford Coppola.
Ellison is betting on developing more animated titles. To do so, he hired exponents of the genre such as John Lasseter and Brad Bird, talents from the Pixar factory and whose productions include titles such as Toy Story and The Incredibles. The couple heads Skydance’s animation arm, which has been developing creations since 2017. In October of last year, the company signed an agreement with Netflix to release, starting in 2026, two films a year on the digital platform.
Jeff Shell, a veteran executive who ran NBCUniversal, is Ellison’s pick to lead the nascent industry giant. According to an investor call Monday, Shell will look to increase sports rights, an asset that holds true as the golden eggs in a business that is shrinking by the year. Shell said he has already begun informal talks with Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, to explore the idea.
Shell also wants to grow the company’s digital platform, Paramount+. Although it continues to gain subscribers, it is lagging behind in the race led by Netflix and Disney+. They do not rule out joining industry trends such as joining forces with others and offering packages, including with NBC’s Peacock or Warner Bros.’ Max.
Paramount’s new owners want to talk about new technology and a leap into the future, but they won’t be able to avoid implementing deep cuts to the studio’s spending. A team of consultants has identified a potential savings of $2 billion by 2026 that will result in layoffs of hundreds of people and reduced production hours at several of the television networks controlled by the conglomerate. For now, both Ellison and Shell have refused to put any company assets or properties up for sale.
