Jeff and Jeff might soon be returning to network TV — Jeff Shell and Jeff Zucker, that’s.
Each men — bounced from running NBCUniversal and CNN, respectively, over sex scandals — now find themselves at private equity firm RedBird Capital, which is behind Skydance Media’s ongoing machinations to take over Shari Redstone’s struggling Paramount entertainment empire.
If the deal works out in Skydance’s favor — and the firm has been the lead bidder for Paramount now for weeks, I’m told — Shell and Zucker could once more be playing a giant role in running some significant media assets, from Paramount studios to CBS, one in all the world’s premier, albeit flagging, news organizations.
“There’ll clearly be a task for Shell if this happens,” is how one deal insider put it last week. Zucker is alleged to be in the combination as well.
Zucker and Shell have a number of things in common, and it goes beyond now finding themselves at the identical firm. Shell, you would possibly recall, got bounced as CEO of NBCU last 12 months after being accused by its parent Comcast of “inappropriate conduct” with a female reporter there. Since around the start of the 12 months, he’s been quietly hanging his hat at RedBird as head of the firm’s sports and media group.
Zucker joined RedBird after he was ousted from CNN over failing to reveal a consensual relationship with his p.r. chief. He’s a firm partner, though I’m told he’s currently spending most of his time on a semi-side hustle as head of a three way partnership with RedBird known as RedBird IMI. It makes his potential involvement in Paramount somewhat more complicated because he’s seeking to buy some UK newspapers.
At the middle of all that is the ailing Paramount, which has been shopping itself as its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, sees her family’s fortune slipping away with the continuing tumult in linear TV.
Lone survivors
The sale talks, as most individuals in media know, have been occurring for months, with various media entities looking under the hood of Paramount and most passing. One other potential bidder, media entrepreneur Byron Allen, says he has the cash to do a deal, but people near the talks are skeptical.
Meaning Skydance and RedBird is likely to be the lone survivors of what was once described as a bidding war.
Slightly background on the duo and where the deal stands: Skydance is a production company owned by David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison of Oracle fame. The old man has a net price of around $140 billion and he is alleged to be a backer.
So is RedBird, a media-focused private equity shop run by Gerry Cardinale. The previous Goldman banker brings his own cachet; he is taken into account one in all the highest financiers in this line of labor.
My sources say David Ellison is keenly interested in Paramount’s studios for obvious reasons; he’s a movie producer (his credits include “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission Inconceivable”). RedBird is eyeing a heavy hand in media properties like CBS, which is in each Shell and Zucker’s wheelhouse.
Looking for ‘$4 billion’
One problem: Shari Redstone wants loads of money — a minimum of $4 billion is the number I keep hearing — and for an asset that’s losing value by the day.
Also, this isn’t a standard acquisition for the reason that ownership structure of Paramount is anything but conventional. Shari, the daughter of the deceased media mogul Sumner Redstone, controls Paramount through her ownership stake in something known as National Amusements, a holding company created by pops.
Skydance/RedBird could be buying her stake in National Amusements and “backing into ownership” of Paramount’s assets, a source near the deal tells me. Common shareholders might indirectly profit from the acquisition, and they’re a number of the sharpest-elbowed investors you will discover in Mario Gabelli and Warren Buffett. They are going to want their pound of flesh if this thing happens or they’ll sue, people near the deal say.
Skydance obviously has the dough, and bankers, after all, are good at buying and selling stuff. If Skydance/RedBird completes the deal, Cardinale will probably unload a few of Paramount’s “melting ice cube” properties — stuff like MTV and Comedy Central where audience share has been eaten away by cord cutting.
But you would like greater than money and rainmakers to run a media company; you would like operational types, and that’s why people in the media business keep talking up the role of Jeff and Jeff.