Paramount leaders address ‘simply unacceptable’ profit declines after sale talks collapse
Two weeks after the sale talks collapsed between Paramount Global and Skydance Media, the company’s co-chief executives tried to rally employees for the future in a packed town hall meeting Tuesday morning.
The company’s so-called “Office of the CEO,” comprising division heads George Cheeks, Chris McCarthy and Brian Robbins, addressed 500 employees on the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles while thousands more tuned in remotely.
“We know what a difficult and disruptive period it has been,” Robbins said during the meeting, which was held at the famed movie and TV studio’s Paramount Theatre. “And while we cannot say that the noise will disappear, we are here today to lay out a go-forward plan that can set us up for success no matter what path the company chooses to go down.”
That plan is a multipronged approach intended to increase profits for Paramount’s streaming service while cutting costs and putting some of the company’s assets up for sale. The company has struggled to compete in streaming, while its once-robust cable channels continue to decline.
“Let me be clear ... a 61% decline in profits is simply unacceptable,” McCarthy said during the meeting, referring to recent dismal financial results. “We need to act now to reverse this trend.”
Rather than leading Paramount to reclaim its place among industry titans, Redstone’s tenure atop the company has been marred by miscalculations and setbacks.
Paramount is advancing talks with potential partners to expand the international reach of Paramount+, which could help make up for the declines in linear TV.
The company is also looking at selling certain assets and has already hired bankers to help with the process, Cheeks said. Those assets could include BET and non-CBS-affiliated TV stations. Proceeds from any potential sales could help Paramount pay down its mountain of debt.
It’s all part of a $500-million cost-cutting plan the company previously telegraphed earlier this month, which would include an unspecified number of layoffs. The belt tightening comes after several waves of cost-cutting and previous asset sales, such as the jettisoning of book publishing giant Simon & Schuster and CBS real estate, including its Manhattan skyscraper and the movie and television lot in Studio City.
The Office of the CEO structure was established after the firing of Chief Executive Bob Bakish, who opposed controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s plan for Skydance Media and its leader David Ellison to take over Paramount.
Skydance, Paramount and Redstone’s holding company National Amusements Inc. has until recently engaged in months of closely watched deal talks. Under the proposal, Skydance would have acquired National Amusements, including Redstone’s voting shares in Paramount. Then Paramount would have acquired Skydance, putting Ellison in charge of the combined company.
Paramount’s special committee was set to vote on the complicated transaction, but Redstone pulled her support at the last minute, killing the deal.
Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.
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