Benjamin Jones
Paramount Global said Monday that CEO Bob Bakish is stepping down from his role, a major management change at the media and entertainment company as it considers a potential merger or sale.
Paramount said in a declaration on Monday that it is creating an Office of the CEO to replace Bakish. The role will be filled by three Paramount Global executives: CBS CEO George Cheeks; Chris McCarthy, CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.
“I have tremendous confidence in George, Chris and Brian,” Board Chair Shari Redstone said in the release. “They have the ability to develop and execute a new strategic plan and work together as true partners.”
Paramount Global is the parent company of CBS News.
Bakish’s departure comes at a crucial time for Paramount, as the company explores a merger and other deals with several potential partners. In recent weeks, the company has held exclusive discussions with Skydance Media, a media company founded by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, according to to published reports.
The discussions are complicated by Paramount’s ownership structure, as Shari Redstone – daughter of the company’s late founder Sumner Redstone – effectively controls 77% of its voting shares. Under a proposed deal with Ellison, Redstone would sell his voting stake to Skydance for $2 billion, while other Paramount shareholders would receive shares in a newly merged company, the Journal reported.
The company did not address merger discussions in the statement, although the board of directors said it is “looking forward to working with George, Chris and Brian as they execute key initiatives to improve performance and value creation at Paramount Global.” .
Bakish’s departure marks the end of a long career at Paramount that began in 1997 at Viacom, the film studio’s predecessor company. He was eventually tapped to lead Viacom and then oversaw the merger of Viacom and CBS in 2019. In 2022, ViacomCBS changed its name to Paramount Global.
In an email sent to Paramount Global employees, Bakish said, “When I was asked to serve as interim CEO in 2016, I thought it would be a month-long job. Seven years later, I can truly say that the opportunity to lead this incredible company was an unexpected but very welcome gift, and the greatest honor of my professional life.”
Separately, Paramount reported a first-quarter loss of $554 million, significantly smaller than the $1.12 billion loss in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 6% to $7.69 billion, driven by strong advertising demand for CBS’s Super Bowl broadcast in February, as well as the addition of 3.7 million new subscribers to the Paramount+ streaming service.
The company said Paramount+ ended the quarter with 71 million subscribers, while the service’s loss narrowed to $286 million, compared with $511 million in the same period a year ago.
