Shari Redstone paid off nearly $200 million of the debt of her family business that controls Paramount — and she did it with cash, mostly from tech tycoon Larry Ellison, the Post has learned.
The 70-year-old daughter of the late media magnate Sumner Redstone paid out more than $186 million last month to creditors of National Amusements — the holding company that owns 77.5% of Paramount’s voting stock, sources close to the situation said.
On Tuesday, a source close to the situation confirmed that Redstone received a big chunk of cash from the Oracle co-founder, whose son David Ellison is CEO of Skydance — the Hollywood studio behind the latest “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible.” Blockbuster.
Skydance and its partners, including Redbird Capital Partners, Agreed to pay $2.4 billion for the family’s entire NAI stake in a complex $8 billion deal that would merge with Paramount. David Ellison will lead the new company.
Redstone owns a 20% stake in NAI through two trusts in his name and is in line to receive about $350 million from its salesAccording to Bloomberg.
Insiders told The Post that it made full payments on the 2018 loan, which had a steep interest rate of 11.5%, even though the balance was not due until May 2025.
Representatives for Redstone, Paramount and Skydance declined to comment.
His decision to repay the loan early came after reports that the media heir was strapped for cash as Paramount grappled with weakness across its business units ranging from CBS to cable networks like Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.
AThis is exclusively reported by The PostIn February, National Amusements sold real estate assets to pay off $40 million in debt to the same group of creditors.
An industry source following the situation said, “Shari needed the money and couldn’t wait until the deal was done.”
Another source who supports the merger said: “She was under extreme stress. It’s fair to say she was desperate to sell the company.”
The revelation that it received money from Skydance’s controlling owners raised questions about whether Redstone got a sweetheart deal – and turned down bids that would have been better for Paramount shareholders.
Redstone struck a deal with Skydance in July after several false starts, including high initial offers from other contenders and the outcry of Paramount investors who feared short-changes by going with an independent studio.
one of those alleged lovers It was reportedly a Warner Bros. Discovery, But according to Paramount’s Nov. 4 public filing, talks failed last winter because it wasn’t offering cash to any shareholders.
Instead, the media giant agreed to pay 1,600 times Skydance’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization at the time of the deal, the filing showed.
According to the filing, Skydance’s EBIDTA for the 12 months ending June 30, 2024 was just $3 million.
The deal involves the merger of the much smaller Skydance with Paramount. It will pay $15 a share for $4.3 billion of common shares, about half of Paramount’s market cap.
The Paramount merger with Skydance was approved by a special committee of Paramount’s board of directors.
The deal is expected to be completed early next year.
Despite the prospects for the merged business, Paramount stock was trading around $10 on Tuesday.
Skydance’s EBITDA is projected to grow to $258 million in 2025 with the release of the latest “Mission: Impossible” film and a few other films in the pipeline.
In contrast, Amazon paid 27.5 times movie studio MGM’s EBITDA when it bought the company in 2021.
“None of the major shareholders were excited to inherit the Skydance business,” a Paramount analyst told The Post, requesting anonymity.
“Skydance numbers make a bad deal even worse.”
last week, Famous investor Mario Gabelli, Paramount’s second-largest stock holder urged the Federal Communications Commission to halt its review of the transfer of broadcast licenses in order to review Skydance’s finances.
arriving on tuesday FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said The agency will investigate how “60 Minutes” edited an interview with Kamala Harris, which could delay the conclusion.
Sources said Paramount was always buying Skydance based on its lofty 2025 projections, and the studio could still hit those figures.
The company’s revenue was expected to reach $974 million in 2024 and rise to $2.3 billion the following year.
“The real question is whether this business meets projections for 2025 and beyond,” said a source familiar with Paramount’s thinking.
