Paramount CEO Bob Bakish Steps Down, Will Obtain $50 Million Severance Package deal
Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, 60, is stepping down efficient instantly, the corporate introduced Monday. He’ll a severance package deal of over $50 million, with $31 million of that in money.
Bakish, a former administration advisor, joined Viacom in 1997. He turned CEO of Viacom in 2016 and the CEO of the mixed ViacomCBS (now often known as Paramount World) in 2019.
The C-suite shakeup comes as the corporate continues negotiations to merge with Skydance Media, the corporate run by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, at the moment the fifth richest man on the planet.
As a result of unsure way forward for the corporate’s possession, Paramount shouldn’t be instantly naming a successor to the CEO place. As an alternative it has created an Workplace of the CEO, consisting of three senior firm executives: George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO, Showtime/MTV Leisure Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Photos and Nickelodeon.
Shari Redstone, chair of the board, stated in a press release: “Paramount World contains distinctive property and we consider strongly sooner or later worth creation potential of the corporate. I’ve great confidence in George, Chris, and Brian. They’ve each the power to develop and execute on a brand new strategic plan and to work collectively as true companions.”

Redstone, who’s the controlling shareholder of the corporate, is claimed to have turn into pissed off with Bakish’s potential to show the corporate round within the post-cable period. Bakish additionally reportedly opposes the merger with Skydance. The New York Instances additional defined the state of affairs:
However Ms. Redstone’s relationship with Mr. Bakish started deteriorating over the past 12 months, three individuals conversant in their interactions stated. Ms. Redstone perceived that he had missed alternatives to strike profitable offers for the corporate, together with a sale of its Showtime and BET cable networks, they stated. In 2021, the personal fairness agency Blackstone expressed curiosity in buying the Showtime cable community for at the least $5.5 billion, an eye-watering sum for a enterprise in long-term decline, one of many individuals stated. Paramount didn’t pursue that deal.
[…]Mr. Bakish’s place turned untenable in latest weeks after he offered a long-term plan to the particular committee that Ms. Redstone believed didn’t adequately mirror the enter of the corporate’s prime executives, together with Mr. Robbins, Mr. Cheeks and Mr. McCarthy, the three individuals stated. Ms. Redstone accepted discussions between these executives and representatives of the board, together with Charles Phillips. In the course of the conversations, the executives expressed misgivings in regards to the route of the corporate, the individuals stated.