Barry Diller appears to be taking a look at Paramount Global.
The mogul’s digital media firm IAC is the latest to throw its hat in the ring to make a deal with Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, multiple sources told The New York Times for a report published Monday. A Paramount rep did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An IAC rep replied, “IAC doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
Diller, one of the most quotable Hollywood moguls, once ran Paramount Pictures as studio chief for more than a decade before his pivot to digital media. If IAC is serious about a run at Paramount, the company would join an ever-growing list of potential suitors for the historic studio that’s also home to CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET and more linear TV brands.
In June, Redstone ended talks for a David Ellison-led Skydance Media offer to effectively take over Paramount. Ellison’s Skydance Media, RedBird Capital and investment firm KKR aimed for a potential deal in which that group would take over Redstone’s National Amusements, which controls Paramount, and merge the company with Skydance, which has co-produced Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible features.
IAC is the owner of Dotdash Meredith, the home of magazine brands like People and InStyle, as well as the Ask Media Group, which houses multiple digital media content brands.
The last megadeal for a major studio was Disney’s $71 billion acquisition in 2019 of most of the assets of Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which made the 20th Century Studios and Searchlight labels part of the Disney empire. Amazon’s buy of the historic MGM studio in 2022 for $8.5 billion further winnowed the field of independent mid-major studios, which also counts Lionsgate as well as upstart entrants like A24.
In preparation for the sealing of a deal, Paramount parted ways on April 29 with CEO Bob Bakish, who had run the company since it recombined Viacom and CBS in December 2019. In the interim, a trio of veteran executives under the title “Office of the CEO” — Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy — are steering the business of Paramount and its brands until a new long-term plan is unveiled.
During a nine-minute earnings call on April 29 in which no questions were taken from analysts, the executive trio did not address any Paramount sale possibilities and presented only a flexible framework articulated by McCarthy on the company’s future: “First, make the most of our hit content. Second, strengthen our balance sheet. And third, optimize our streaming strategy.”
At a June 25 town hall with employees in Los Angeles, the co-CEOs outlined a plan to cut $500 million in costs at Paramount as well as explore selling some of its properties. Cheeks told employees, “We’re looking at selling certain Paramount-owned assets — in fact we’ve already hired bankers to assist us in this process — and we’ll use the proceeds to help pay down debt and strengthen our balance sheet.”
McCarthy was even more blunt about the need to ensure that Paramount is profitable in the short term. (For example, while its flagship streaming service, Paramount+, hit 71 million subscribers in its latest quarter, streaming losses amounted to $286 million.) “Let me be clear,” the exec remarked at the town hall. “A 61 percent decline in profits is simply unacceptable … we need to act now to reverse this trend.”