Latest news with #RedBird
Los Angeles Times
05-08-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Paramount Skydance board to include David Ellison, Sherry Lansing, Oracle's Safra Catz
Paramount Skydance has named its 10-member board of directors, which includes tech scion David Ellison, Oracle Chief Executive Safra A. Catz and former Paramount Pictures chairwoman Sherry Lansing. Ellison will serve as chairman of the board. The board is scheduled to reconstitute Thursday with the close of Skydance Media's $8.4-billion acquisition of Paramount Global. Only one current Paramount board member — Barbara Byrne — will remain. Paramount's current chairwoman, Shari Redstone, and others are set to exit, handing over the legendary entertainment company that includes CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Showtime and Melrose Avenue's century-old movie studio, Paramount Pictures, to the new group of owners. The board tilts heavily toward firms that have a financial stake: The Larry Ellison family and RedBird Capital Partners, backers of Skydance Media that have helped finance the Paramount transaction. The incoming panel also represents a power-sharing arrangement. The Ellisons have five designates on the board, including David Ellison and Catz, a longtime Oracle executive who has served as its CEO since 2019. (She also is a previous Walt Disney Co. director.) The private equity firm has two representatives: RedBird founder and managing partner Gerry Cardinale and John L. Thornton, the firm's chairman. In addition, two executives with RedBird ties — Jeff Shell and Andy Gordon — will take board seats. Both are joining Paramount from RedBird as senior executives. Shell, a former NBCUniversal chief executive, is becoming Paramount's president, while Gordon, a longtime Goldman Sachs banker, has been named Paramount's chief operating and chief strategy officer. Paul Marinelli, president of Larry Ellison-backed Lawrence Investments, will join the board. There will be three independent board members, including Byrne, Justin G. Hamill, a managing director of Silver Lake, and Lansing, who was a groundbreaking executive in Hollywood and popular steward of Paramount more than two decades ago. 'We are thrilled and honored to welcome this truly outstanding group of director-designees to our board,' David Ellison said in a statement. The Federal Communications Commission, led by President Trump-appointed Chairman Brendan Carr, approved the Skydance-Paramount merger two weeks ago after months of turmoil. The FCC's 2-1 vote came after Paramount agreed last month to pay Trump $16 million to settle the president's lawsuit over edits to a '60 Minutes' broadcast. The FCC approval removed the last hurdle, allowing the Skydance purchase to move forward. Redstone, the daughter of entertainment titan Sumner Redstone, and Paramount's board agreed to the Skydance takeover in July 2024. As part of the transaction, the Redstone family investment firm National Amusements will receive $2.4 billion for its controlling shares in the company. The family will come away with $1.75 billion after National Amusements' considerable debts are paid. The Redstone shares will pass to Larry Ellison and RedBird, which will hold a minority stake in National Amusements. The deal is expected to inject $1.5 billion into Paramount's balance sheet to help the firm pay down debt. More than $4 billion was set aside to buy back shares of current Paramount shareholders. Santa Monica-based Skydance will eventually be folded into Paramount.
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hedge fund tycoon Hosking says rival Telegraph bid "ready to go"
The hedge fund founder enlisted to back a bid for The Daily Telegraph says the offer is "ready to go" if a takeover of the broadsheet title involving sovereign Gulf money runs into further regulatory problems. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hosking, the prominent City figure who co-founded Marathon Asset Management, is pledging to inject £100m of his own money into the newspaper group if the self-styled 'British bid' of which he is part is successful. Mr Hosking, who now runs Hosking Partners, has been working with Dovid Efune, the owner of the New York Sun, in an effort to gain control of the Telegraph for several months. Money latest: They have been thwarted, though, by an agreement reached with RedBird Capital Partners, the US-based investment firm, to buy the titles for £500m following a two-year battle which has plunged the Telegraph into a protracted state of limbo. RedBird's bid includes tens of millions of pounds of funding from IMI, a state-backed Abu Dhabi vehicle, which cleared a key hurdle last week when the House of Lords voted against a 'fatal motion' which would have blocked the sovereign investment. The outcome of the vote was not without fierce debate, with 155 peers supporting the ban. IMI is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club. Speaking through Mr Efune, Mr Hosking said in a statement on Wednesday morning: "We have been following the latest developments closely and with the best outcome for all Telegraph stakeholders front of mind. "We understand from the Lords debate last week that there is now a legal requirement for the government to formally investigate all the foreign government ties that may result in influence over the current preferred buyer. "Should the buyer be deemed unsuitable, our "British Bid" is ready to go. "We believe our current capitalization is more than adequate to replace the controlling shareholder's portion of the deal. "My own personal commitment is £100m in equity capital." Further details of the financing lined up by Mr Efune's consortium remain unclear, including the level of debt attached to his prospective offer. The RedBird-led acquisition of the Telegraph remains subject to investigations by both Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority, which are likely to delay completion of the deal into next year. Sky News previously revealed that Sir Leonard Blavatnik, owner of the DAZN sports streaming platform, and Daily Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere were preparing to buy minority stakes as part of the RedBird transaction. Gerry Cardinale, the RedBird executive, who has spearheaded the latest iteration of its acquisition, has described the firm as "the right owner at the right time". RedBird said in May that it was "in discussions with select UK-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of the Telegraph". The Telegraph titles' parent company was forced into insolvency proceedings in 2023 by Lloyds Banking Group, which ran out of patience with the Barclay family, their long-standing owner. RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the two firms, paid £600m several months later to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine. That objective was thwarted by a change in media ownership laws - which banned any form of foreign state ownership. Some peers argued last week that a 15% threshold was too high and that the legislation to permit it was dangerously ambiguous because it could allow for more than one state investor to aggregate their holdings in British newspapers. A further statutory instrument will need to be approved in order to address this issue. The Spectator, which had also been part of the same group, was sold last year for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Lord Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.
Sky News
30-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News
Hedge fund tycoon Hosking says rival Telegraph bid "ready to go"
The hedge fund founder enlisted to back a bid for The Daily Telegraph says the offer is "ready to go" if a takeover of the broadsheet title involving sovereign Gulf money runs into further regulatory problems. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hosking, the prominent City figure who co-founded Marathon Asset Management, is pledging to inject £100m of his own money into the newspaper group if the self-styled 'British bid' of which he is part is successful. Mr Hosking, who now runs Hosking Partners, has been working with Dovid Efune, the owner of the New York Sun, in an effort to gain control of the Telegraph for several months. They have been thwarted, though, by an agreement reached with RedBird Capital Partners, the US-based investment firm, to buy the titles for £500m following a two-year battle which has plunged the Telegraph into a protracted state of limbo. RedBird's bid includes tens of millions of pounds of funding from IMI, a state-backed Abu Dhabi vehicle, which cleared a key hurdle last week when the House of Lords voted against a 'fatal motion' which would have blocked the sovereign investment. The outcome of the vote was not without fierce debate, with 155 peers supporting the ban. IMI is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club. Speaking through Mr Efune, Mr Hosking said in a statement on Wednesday morning: "We have been following the latest developments closely and with the best outcome for all Telegraph stakeholders front of mind. "We understand from the Lords debate last week that there is now a legal requirement for the government to formally investigate all the foreign government ties that may result in influence over the current preferred buyer. "Should the buyer be deemed unsuitable, our "British Bid" is ready to go. "We believe our current capitalization is more than adequate to replace the controlling shareholder's portion of the deal. "My own personal commitment is £100m in equity capital." Further details of the financing lined up by Mr Efune's consortium remain unclear, including the level of debt attached to his prospective offer. The RedBird-led acquisition of the Telegraph remains subject to investigations by both Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority, which are likely to delay completion of the deal into next year. Sky News previously revealed that Sir Leonard Blavatnik, owner of the DAZN sports streaming platform, and Daily Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere were preparing to buy minority stakes as part of the RedBird transaction. Gerry Cardinale, the RedBird executive, who has spearheaded the latest iteration of its acquisition, has described the firm as "the right owner at the right time". RedBird said in May that it was "in discussions with select UK-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of the Telegraph". The Telegraph titles' parent company was forced into insolvency proceedings in 2023 by Lloyds Banking Group, which ran out of patience with the Barclay family, their long-standing owner. RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the two firms, paid £600m several months later to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine. That objective was thwarted by a change in media ownership laws - which banned any form of foreign state ownership. Some peers argued last week that a 15% threshold was too high and that the legislation to permit it was dangerously ambiguous because it could allow for more than one state investor to aggregate their holdings in British newspapers. A further statutory instrument will need to be approved in order to address this issue. The Spectator, which had also been part of the same group, was sold last year for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Lord Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.
Free Malaysia Today
13-07-2025
- Sport
- Free Malaysia Today
Hernandez fires parting shot at AC Milan
Theo Hernandez has joined Saudi club Al-Hilal from AC Milan. (EPA Images pic) ROME : French international Theo Hernandez, who has joined Saudi club Al-Hilal, took a swing at AC Milan's leadership as he bid farewell to the club and its fans on social media. Milan finished eighth in Serie A last season amid vociferous protests from supporters against the club's American owners RedBird. In a farewell post on Instagram, Hernandez, a leftback who can play in midfield, echoed that criticism. 'Milan has always been my priority,' he wrote. 'But, unfortunately, not everything depends on one person. The direction the club has taken and some recent decisions do not reflect the values or ambition that brought me here.' Hernandez, 27, joined Milan in 2019 from Real Madrid. He made 262 appearances for the club scoring 34 goals. 'I am leaving after experiencing unforgettable moments, such as winning Serie A and the Italian Super Cup, and especially after sharing the changing room with extraordinary people,' he wrote. The club went through three coaches last season and has just appointed a fourth, Massimiliano Allegri. Hernandez thanked 'every coach who believed in me', singling out Paolo Maldini, the club's technical director until June 2023, 'for his closeness, vision and leadership'. He also thanked the fans. 'Feeling your support was a privilege that I will never forget and will carry in my heart forever,' he said. 'I am leaving with my head held high,' he wrote. 'I leave with a full heart, and with the hope that very soon Milan will return to the place it deserves. Milan will always be a part of me.'
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Hernandez fires parting shot at AC Milan
Theo Hernandez told AC Milan's leadership what he thought of them after leaving for Al-Hilal (Isabella BONOTTO) French international Theo Hernandez, who has joined Saudi club Al-Hilal, took a swing at AC Milan's leadership as he bid farewell to the club and its fans on social media. Milan finished eighth in Serie A last season amid vociferous protests from supporters against the club's American owners RedBird. Advertisement In a farewell post on Instagram, Hernandez, a left back who can play in midfield, echoed that criticism. "Milan has always been my priority," he wrote. "But, unfortunately, not everything depends on one person. The direction the club has taken and some recent decisions do not reflect the values or ambition that brought me here." Hernandez, 27, joined Milan in 2019 from Real Madrid. He made 262 appearances for the club scoring 34 goals. "I am leaving after experiencing unforgettable moments, such as winning Serie A and the Italian Super Cup, and especially after sharing the changing room with extraordinary people," he wrote. Advertisement The club went through three coaches last season and has just appointed a fourth, Massimiliano Allegri. Hernandez thanked "every coach who believed in me", singling out Paolo Maldini, the club's technical director until June 2023, "for his closeness, vision and leadership". He also thanked the fans. "Feeling your support was a privilege that I will never forget and will carry in my heart forever," he said. "I am leaving with my head held high," he wrote. "I leave with a full heart, and with the hope that very soon Milan will return to the place it deserves. Milan will always be a part of me." jr/pb/pi
