The Bob Bakish period at Paramount might be nearing its finish.
The Paramount CEO could half methods with the leisure big within the coming days, per a Wall Avenue Journal report. Paramount experiences its quarterly earnings on Monday afternoon, that means that if he does go away, it’ll doubtless be earlier than then.
A Paramount spokesperson declined to remark.
The CEO’s imminent exit comes as Paramount and controlling shareholder Nationwide Amusements are in unique sale negotiations with a gaggle led by David Ellison’s Skydance, in addition to Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, and KKR.
But it surely additionally comes as one other potential bidder, the non-public fairness agency Apollo, has held early talks with Sony about partnering on a suggestion. Such a suggestion couldn’t be offered to the board till the unique window with Skydance closes.
The Journal first reported on the potential exit of Bakish, including that the plan being thought of would see a handful of prime executives take Bakish’s place on an interim foundation.
Bakish’s exit could be the most recent twist in Paramount’s destiny, with Bakish serving to to create the present iteration of the corporate by serving to controlling shareholder Shari Redstone merge CBS and Viacom merger in 2019. The corporate would change its title to Paramount in 2022.
Paramount consists of the famed Paramount movie studio and lot, in addition to CBS, the Paramount+ streaming service, and the previous Viacom cable channels, like MTV, Nickelodeon, and Comedy Central.