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Amid the mergers and acquisitions drama surrounding Paramount Global, Bob Bakish is set to step down as CEO after eight years at the helm of Shari Redstone’s media empire.
Bakish is expected to resign under pressure on Monday. The executive has worked at Paramount and its predecessor Viacom since 1997. He was recruited by Redstone in 2016 to help restore order to a company that had foundered in a public legal fight among shareholders and a battle for control between Redstone and former CEO of Viacom, Philippe Dauman. News of Bakish’s impending departure first surfaced Friday in the Wall Street Journal.
Currently, the Paramount board is in exclusive acquisition talks with Skydance Media and RedBird Capital. Another group, Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management, is set to submit a formal all-cash offer for the company this week as the exclusive negotiation window with Skydance expires on May 3. As negotiations over Skydance dragged on for months, it became clear that Skydance CEO David Ellison would take the helm of the expanded Paramount-Skydance operation, while RedBird executive Jeff Shell, former CEO of NBCUniversal and longtime Comcast executive, would serve as Ellison’s No. 1. .2 supervise daily operations. There was no pretense of giving Bakish a role.
A representative for Paramount Global declined to comment Saturday. The company is expected to report its first-quarter results on Monday. Bakish will not participate in the traditional conference call with analysts that accompanies the release of quarterly results, CNBC reported.
Bakish was all but guaranteed to step down as head of the company once the sale process was complete, regardless of who acquired Paramount Global. The company has weathered shock over the past year with a plummeting stock price, successive quarters of weak profits driven by losses at its streaming division. CNBC reported that Bakish’s departure was hastened by his opposition to the proposed merger with Skydance.
News Source : variety.com
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