THB #548: Into The Ellison Unknown

Skydance
Have you anything to say to me?
Won't you tell me where my studio will be?
Is there a winner in the mist
Where everyone's waiting to be rich?
- with apologies to Hoagy Carmichael

So Skydance/Redbird is about to put the Mount in Paramount, taking over Paramount Global from Shari Redstone. All but done. Finally.

So where is the New Paramount headed?

How do I say this as simply as possible? I don’t have the slightest fucking idea. You don’t have the slightest fucking idea. I have to assume that David Ellison & Co have a clear idea of what they plan on doing in the next 18 months. Or maybe they only have the slightest fucking idea.

The hope is that there will be some more aggressive, more successful leadership moving forward. The hope is that Skydance won’t sell off too much of the business. The hope is that there will be more investment in building the company… as a movie studio… as a smarter Linear/Streaming television business… as a production entity for all and any kinds of television.

But there is no shortcut. There is no easy answer. If any of these answers are intended, they will come in the execution, even if they do get more capital out of Big Daddy, Larry Ellison.

CNBC’s David Faber was asked in his presentation this morning what Skydance would do with Paramount. The main answer was, “The focus is on cost cutting… the idea is that you could cut as much as $3 billion in Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses.”

Are you KIDDING us?!?!

He is not.