David Ellison’s Skydance Media has unveiled its leadership structure for Paramount, beginning a shake-up as the Shari Redstone era winds to a close.
Ellison will become chairman and chief executive of the new Paramount Skydance Corp. with a goal of reviving the legendary entertainment company. The structure will largely be decentralized with Ellison entrusting his division heads with considerable power.
Skydance’s $8.4-billion takeover is scheduled to close Thursday.
RedBird Capital Partners executive and former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell will be the company’s president, overseeing day-to-day operations of the television businesses.
Only one current top Paramount executive — Co-Chief Executive George Cheeks — will remain. Cheeks becomes chairman of TV media, which includes the CBS properties and cable TV channels, including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and BET.
Dana Goldberg, who has worked with Ellison for nearly 15 years, will rise to co-chair of Paramount Pictures alongside Josh Greenstein, who until last week was Sony Pictures’ motion pictures president. In addition to overseeing the Melrose Avenue film studio, Goldberg will run Paramount Television Studios and Nickelodeon Films. In recent years, Goldberg has served as Skydance’s chief creative officer.
Greenstein moves back to Paramount, where he previously served as marketing president before leaving for Sony in 2014.
Cindy Holland, a former top Netflix programmer, will run the streaming services, Paramount+ and Pluto, making her a major player in the new company.
Holland spent 18 years at Netflix, working on such shows as “House of Cards,” “Grace and Frankie,” and “Stranger Things,” until her 2020 departure. She briefly ran the Elisabeth Murdoch production studio, Sister, until joining Ellison last year as an advisor.
“This world-class team is uniquely equipped to rise to the occasion and deliver on our bold vision for a new Paramount,” Ellison said in a statement.
The new organizational structure comes after the Federal Communications Commission, led by President Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr, approved the Skydance-Paramount merger after a political tug-of-war with the president and his team.
In late July, the FCC voted 2-1 to approve the deal and transfer 28 CBS television station licenses to billionaire Larry Ellison and his family. The sole Democrat on the panel dissented, citing a regulatory review that she said invited abuses of power.
Skydance is buying Paramount with RedBird, which gives the private equity firm considerable sway in managing Paramount. In addition to Shell, former Goldman Sachs banker Andy Gordon — who led RedBird’s Los Angeles office as a partner — will become Paramount’s chief operating officer and chief strategy officer.
Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon, Skydance’s general counsel, will join Paramount in the same role, overseeing legal, regulatory, and compliance matters across the company’s global operations. She will also serve as acting chief legal officer.
Melissa Zukerman becomes Paramount’s chief communications officer, serving as chief spokesperson, head of global communications, social responsibility and a key Ellison advisor.
Former Amazon executive Jim Sterner becomes Paramount’s chief people officer, responsible for human resources and shaping the corporate culture that “fuels innovation and long-term business success,” the company said.
Paramount’s other two co-chief executives — Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins — are leaving the company this week.
The Skydance takeover ends 38 years of Redstone control.
Their Hollywood empire was diminished by years of cost-cutting and viewership losses which prompted Shari Redstone to find a buyer in late 2023. Her family was seeking an exit amid their mounting debts.
Redstone, the daughter of entertainment titan Sumner Redstone, and Paramount’s board agreed to the Skydance takeover in July 2024 after months of drama and churn among its board of directors.
As part of the transaction, the Redstone family investment firm National Amusements will receive $2.4 billion for its controlling shares in the company. Those shares will pass to Larry Ellison and RedBird, which will hold a minority stake in National Amusements.
The deal is expected to inject $1.5 billion into Paramount’s balance sheet to help the firm pay down debt.
The Ellison’s Santa Monica based Skydance will eventually be folded into Paramount.
Skydance is expected to usher in additional steep rounds of layoffs at Paramount. RedBird executives have promised Wall Street that it will find $2 billion in cost savings.
The controversial FCC vote approving the Skydance-Paramount merger came just three weeks after Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle the president’s lawsuit over edits to a “60 Minutes” broadcast last fall. Trump had claimed CBS producers deceptively edited the October interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris to enhance her election chances.
CBS denied his allegations, saying the edits were routine. The unedited video showed that while Harris’ answer was clipped, she was accurately quoted. 1st Amendment experts and journalists decried the settlement, which will steer much of the money to Trump’s future presidential library.
Trump has said that Skydance is throwing in another $20 million in public service announcements and other free programming as part of the lawsuit settlement. Trump has said on social media the value of his payout was about $36 million.
As part of its agreement with the FCC, Ellison pledged to abandon all diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Paramount.
Skydance also agreed to “promote transparency and increased accountability” at CBS News. The company said it would install an ombudsman, reporting to Shell, “to receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS” for at least two years.
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