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Thursday, April 3, 2025

Told You: Paramount Pictures Etc Sold to David Ellison, Son of Billionaire Oracle Founder Larry, for $8 Billion

I told you back on May 3rd that Shari Redstone wanted to sell her family company to another family.

Now CNBC reports the deal is ready to be signed. Redstone will receive $8 billion from David Ellison and his company, Skydance. Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, the billionaire who created Oracle.

The deal isn’t just for Paramount Pictures, but for a stunning number of media holdings including CBS, MTV Networks, Showtime, Paramount channel and network, and dozens more media entities. Ellison is backed by Henry Kravis’s KKR Holdings, which last year bought publisher Simon and Schuster from Redstone for $1.62 billion. Maybe down the line they’ll all be reunited. Stranger things have happened.

In a way, it’s good news. Since her father, Sumner Redstone, died, Shari has wanted to get out. Now she’s accomplished that and at the same time kept the company together. Sony and Apollo Management offered a stunning $26 billion, but they want to sell it off for parts.

Sumner Redstone bought Paramount etc from Gulf and Western in 1994. He died in 2020 at age 97.

More to come…

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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