Why Did Shari Redstone Do It?

New York Times

4 hours ago

Shari Redstone, the 71-year-old daughter of the billionaire mogul Sumner Redstone, spent much of her adult life trying to take control of her father's media empire, which became known as Paramount Global, and the Redstone family legacy. Along the way, she was often belittled and dismissed by her father, underestimated by his top executives and sidelined by his romantic companions.
She succeeded, finally, and in December 2019 became the controlling shareholder of a company then valued at over $25 billion. Ms. Redstone, it seemed, had achieved her life's goal.
But just five years later, Ms. Redstone decided to give it all up. On July 7, 2024, Paramount announced it would sell itself to Skydance Media, a young Hollywood studio founded by David Ellison, the 42-year-old son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire co-founder of Oracle. Skydance would pay $8 billion for the company, about a third of the company's value when she took over. As part of the deal, Skydance would pay $2.4 billion for the Redstone family's controlling stake, and give Ms. Redstone additional payments amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
For Ms. Redstone, the life of a media mogul and controlling shareholder proved far less glamorous and satisfying than public perception might suggest. She took over just as streaming upended Hollywood, and Ms. Redstone felt her hands were often tied by independent board members more worried about avoiding lawsuits than confronting the obvious business challenges.
'I just wanted to be free,' Ms. Redstone said in an interview soon after the deal was announced.
Little did she know.
What transpired over the next 13 months, before the deal closed this month, left Ms. Redstone reeling and her reputation battered. In short order, Donald J. Trump sued CBS over a '60 Minutes' interview of Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Trump was elected president a week later, and after the inauguration his administration needed to approve the deal. That put Ms. Redstone in an untenable situation: Any attempt to settle the lawsuit, even if it was in the best interest of the company, would be viewed by many, including prominent on-air voices at CBS, as appeasement. Two senators went so far as to suggest any payment by CBS to settle the Trump lawsuit could constitute bribery.
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