Four Paramount board members to step down amid merger talks, WSJ reports
3:36 pm Wednesday, April 10th, 2024
(Reuters) -Four members of Paramount Global’s board are expected to step down soon as the entertainment giant controlled by Shari Redstone discusses a merger with Skydance Media, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Former Spotify executive Dawn Ostroff, Sony Entertainment ex-president Nicole Seligman, Redstone attorney Rob Klieger and investment banker Frederick Terrell are expected to leave the board in the next few weeks, the report said citing people familiar with the matter.
Paramount declined to comment. Klieger did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while the other three directors could not be immediately reached.
Shares of the company fell nearly 4%.
Earlier this month, a source told Reuters that Paramount’s board had agreed to enter exclusive merger talks with Skydance Media, which is led by CEO David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
A deal would combine Paramount with Ellison’s independent media house that is behind films such as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”.
Seligman, who is also on the board of OpenAI, Terrell and Ostroff are on a special committee of independent directors tasked with pursuing the best possible deal for Paramount, whether that is with Skydance or another suitor, the Journal reported on Wednesday.
It added at least one of the directors who is stepping down expressed concern about the potential Skydance deal.
The structure of the proposed deal has also faced criticism from some investors, who have voiced concerns in letters to the board the deal would be good for Redstone but would dilute Paramount’s non-voting shareholders, the Journal said.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Priyanka G in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Krishna Chandra Eluri)
