Paramount mulls dumping CEO Bob Bakish as sale talks with Skydance inch forward: report
NY Post
Paramount Global is reportedly considering dumping longtime CEO Bob Bakish and replacing him with a group of executives as the entertainment giant inches closer to a deal with Skydance Media.
Bakish, who has been privately critical of the company’s talks to merge with Skydance, would be replaced on an interim basis with an “Office of the CEO,” comprised of the company’s division heads, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
No decision has been made about Bakish’s future, however, and he may remain in place, but the speculation comes at a pivotal time for the conglomerate, which is controlled by media heiress Shari Redstone through her family business National Amusements.
Paramount — home to Showtime, CBS, MTV, movie studio Paramount Pictures and the streaming service Paramount+ — has been hammering out details for a merger with Skydance that it hopes to finalize next month, sources told CNBC.
But Redstone and some of the board members have “soured” on Bakish, The Journal said, adding that they have questioned whether the CEO pursued strategic opportunities for the company “aggressively enough,” including a potential sale of the Showtime channel.
Spokespeople for the Paramount Global special committee, Paramount Global, and Skydance declined to comment.
