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What Went Wrong: Inside Paramount’s Failed Merger Talks and the Battle to Salvage the Company
As negotiations went on, Shari Redstone fell out of love with the idea of marrying her family’s legacy to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
The only woman to ever control one of Hollywood’s largest media conglomerates came to the conclusion that Skydance wasn’t the right move at the right time — despite the Greek chorus of Wall Streeters and business leaders who have opined for months that market conditions had left her two choices: sell or watch the company wither. The dividend dilemma underscored that Redstone was in the bad position of trying to sell at the bottom of the market — a time when even more-successful media firms like Disney and Comcast are struggling to get Wall Street excited about their prospects. That included a clip of SpongeBob SquarePants exclaiming, “I am so excited, I think I’m gonna explode!” It was a jarring contrast to the current anxiety among Paramount’s rank and file, who are trying to maintain a business-as-usual façade amid the uncertainty of what will happen next.
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