• by Wayne Friedman , April 29, 2024

With the backdrop of ongoing financial pressures, an ever lower stock price, and possible sale of the company, Bob Bakish, president and CEO of Paramount Global, will be departing his position, according to reports.

A Paramount Global representative decline to comment in response to a Television News Daily inquiry.

Currently, Paramount is considering a bid from Skydance Media, an on-the-Paramount-lot producer of big Paramount pictures such as “Top Gun: Maverick”, "Mission:Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One" and other films, in an exclusive 30-day period of talks.

Under the terms of the Paramount and Skydance talks, Bakish would leave Paramount to be replaced by David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, according to a CNBC report.

Bakish assumed the title of president/CEO of Paramount Global in 2019, when CBS Corp. and Viacom completed their merger for form the newly named company.

This comes as new potential buyers of Paramount have shown interest as well -- including a joint bid from Apollo Global Management, a private equity investment company, and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Analysts speculate that the offer could be valued at least $26 billion -- an initial bid that Apollo made earlier this year as a single acquirer for the company.

The move also comes as Paramount will soon be starting up a crucial network carriage re-negotiation with Charter Communications, the biggest retail distributor selling linear, live TV packages of broadcast and cable TV networks to consumers. 

Paramount Global has nearly two dozen U.S. networks including CBS, Showtime, Pluto TV and cable TV networks brands such as Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, BET, Paramount, and Comedy Central. Globally, it operates over 170 networks, reaching about 700 million subscribers in 180 countries.

In 2019, Apollo Global Management acquired a controlling stake in Cox Media Group -- which included 13 local TV stations, newspapers, Gamut (a digital advertising group), and CoxReps (its local TV sales rep business) -- for a reported $3 billion.

Paramount Global has been scrutinized by Wall Street investors with regard to its declining linear TV business and its attempts to achieve profitability to boost its new direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses -- including Paramount+, which has seen massive billion plus losses in recent periods.

For the full year of 2023, Paramount’s D2C businesses -- primarily its premium streaming platform, Paramount+ -- posted a net loss of $1.7 billion. The company projects that next year its D2C business will be profitable.

This story has been updated.