Barry Diller appears to be taking a look at Paramount Global.
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The executive’s digital media firm IAC is the latest to throw its hat in the ring to make a deal with Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, The New York Times reported , citing multiple unnamed sources, on Monday. An IAC rep replied, “IAC doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.” A Paramount rep did not respond to a request for comment.
Diller — a quotable mogul who has emphasized in interviews that the industry needs to “ reorient ” its business to revive the TV bundle — once ran Paramount Pictures as studio chief for a decade beginning in 1974 when it was owned by the conglomerate Gulf & Western. He then was hired as CEO of 20th Century Fox and, when Rupert Murdoch snapped up the studio, helped lead the launch of Fox Broadcasting before exiting in 1992. Diller later ran home-shopping channel QVC and pivoted to building a digital media empire.
If IAC is serious about a run at Paramount, the company would join an ever-growing list of potential suitors for the historic studio that’s also home to CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET and more linear TV brands.
In June, Redstone ended talks for a David Ellison-led Skydance Media offer to effectively take over Paramount. Ellison’s Skydance, RedBird Capital and investment firm KKR aimed for a potential deal in which that group would take over Redstone’s National Amusements, which controls Paramount, and merge the company with Skydance, which has co-produced Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible features.
IAC (formerly known as InterActiveCorp) is the owner of Dotdash Meredith, the home of magazine brands like People and InStyle , as well as the Ask Media Group, which houses multiple digital media content brands, and home service platform Angi.
The last megadeal for a major studio was Disney’s $71 billion acquisition in 2019 of most of the assets of Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox, which made the 20th Century Studios and Searchlight labels part of the Disney empire. Amazon’s buy of the historic MGM studio in 2022 for $8.5 billion further winnowed the field of independent mid-major studios, which also counts Lionsgate as well as upstart entrants like A24.
Paramount Chiefs to Staff: We're Cutting $500M in Costs After "Unacceptable" Profit Drops
In preparation for the sealing of a deal, Paramount parted ways on April 29 with CEO Bob Bakish, who had run the company since it recombined Viacom and CBS in December 2019. In the interim, a trio of veteran executives under the title “Office of the CEO” — Brian Robbins, George Cheeks and Chris McCarthy — are steering the business of Paramount and its brands until a new long-term plan is unveiled.
During a nine-minute earnings call on April 29 in which no questions were taken from analysts, the executive trio did not address any Paramount sale possibilities and presented only a flexible framework articulated by McCarthy on the company’s future: “First, make the most of our hit content. Second, strengthen our balance sheet. And third, optimize our streaming strategy.”
At a June 25 town hall with employees in Los Angeles, the co-CEOs outlined a plan to cut $500 million in costs at Paramount as well as explore selling some of its properties. Cheeks told employees, “We’re looking at selling certain Paramount-owned assets — in fact we’ve already hired bankers to assist us in this process — and we’ll use the proceeds to help pay down debt and strengthen our balance sheet.”
McCarthy was even more blunt about the need to ensure that Paramount is profitable in the short term. (For example, while its flagship streaming service, Paramount+, hit 71 million subscribers in its latest quarter, streaming losses amounted to $286 million.) “Let me be clear,” the exec remarked at the town hall. “A 61 percent decline in profits is simply unacceptable … we need to act now to reverse this trend.”
Year to date, Paramount stock is trading down 29 percent to $10.14, though Guggenheim Securities’ analyst Michael Morris maintained a “Buy” rating on July 1 at a price target of $19 a share.
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