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We're getting some news that the Paramount Global is announcing new leadership changes. CEO Bob Gatbackish stepping down from his role at CEO. Not a surprise to those who've been following over the last few days. Again, Paramount Global just out with the press release saying that Global CEO Bob Backish stepping down.
Yeah.
Apparently he and Shari Redstone were not seeing eye to eye. There are a lot of offers made for different parts of Paramount that he at different points rejected, and as a result, they are not going with any one CEO as his replacement. They're establishing an office of CEO. Which does that inspire confidence when the company's trying to I don't even know.
What that means.
Well, I mean, but look at who it is. I mean, no, it doesn't inspire confidence. Answer your question though, I will say this, And when you look at who it is, you're basically talking about Great Cheeks, who is running CBS. You're talking about Chris McCarthy who was running the Showtime and MTV Networks, and then they're bringing in Brian Robbins, who was I guess heading up Nickelodeon and some of the kids programming here, So it's kind of a cross
section of all the major broadcast properties there. So maybe that provides some confidence that the people running this company now are probably more on the content side rather than just on sort of the financial side.
But what does it mean for the future of Paramount Global as a standalone public company?
It makes its fund to be sold and I'm sold soon.
That's that's where I'm going with this. So Jay Redstone chaired the board, saying that it Paramount Global includes exceptional assets that we believe strongly in the future of value creation potential of the company. The question is where does that value come from. Does it come from a new ownership or does it come from staying independent.
Well that's the other thing too, I mean we talk about I mean, to Scarla's point, I mean, whether this is a good idea to have basically three CEOs thing. But like, let's face it, this isn't going to last long one way or the other. This is sold, They're going to have to find some different management structure, and so this seems to be much more of a stopgap.
I mean, end of an era. Though for Bob Backings, right. He's been at Viacomp since nineteen ninety seven, CEO of I come back in twenty sixteen, CEO of the combined company back in twenty nineteen.
Yeah, and one reason why he was able to rise and stay in his position was because he did get along with Sharry Redstone once upon a time, a long time ago. That is no longer the case. And this is definitely a company Romaine as you were putting it set up to be sold. The question is whether it will be sky Dance that is the actual acquirer, and of course that's the Redstone family's preference, or Apollo and Sony, or maybe there might even be another dark horse candidate coming in here.
I do find it interesting if you just look at the three that are taking over, and you guys pointed this out, But as we're spending some time on it, as we're also waiting for the numbers to come out, do Christ muccarthy, president's CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios do the Showtime Studio part. Then Brian Robbins is
the president's CEO of Paramount Pictures. Then you have the movie Behemoth, and then you wind up having cheeks George Cheeks, who's the CEO over He'll be the CEO over at CBS. So then that's where the tri effecta of what Paramount Global actually is and how that sets up each of its areas to either be sold separately or then tried two together.
Yeah, and I mean, and that's well, that's the big question though, and a lot of questions about what the what the new structure would look like, whether this would be sort of a white knight coming in and buying the whole thing, or whether they're actually just looking for certain pieces of it. And I think, guys, if you're keeping an eye on the wire right now, I think we're actually finally getting the numbers for the most recent quarter, and they're pretty much what you would expected to miss
on several of the key metrics. I'll just give you the top and bottom line here, one Q revenue coming in at seven point seven billion, the street was looking for about seven point seventy four and as far as the loss per share at least on a continuing basis, looking at about eighty eight cents here, not sure the comparison, but when you look at the one Q adjusted EPs for continuing ops, they did beat their sixty two cents at thirty six cents, So I'm not sure these numbers actually matter, and.
She yeah, shares bouncing around a little bit, but still higher in the after hours by a little over two percent. First quarter direct consumer revenue coming in right at estimates of one point eight eight billion dollars, first quarter TV revenue at five point two three billion, missing estimates of five point three three But Scarlett, like Romaine, said, the big question is do these numbers even matter?
Do the numbers really matter? Well, if you're a potential bidder, they do, because the filmed entertainment revenue was actually one part of the business that beat analyst estimates six hundred and five million dollars. The consensussessment was for five hundred and seventy seven. And again, if you're sky Dance, this really matters because this is what their their whole thing is, right, sky Dance is making movies, and Paramount has this storied franchise and that's what they would be buying.
Yep.
Interesting in their earnings release, this statement is from Navilla Chopra, the executive vice president CFO. So not I even bought backish there, just saying that the team delivered a strong operational and financial performance despite a quote dynamic environment. We continue to operate in code.
That's code wow, what are you for?
Hot mess?
As I mentioned, we're talking about Paramount up two percent in after hours this after Paramount Global replaced Chief executive Officer Bob Bekish, appointing a management committee. As the board negotiates a possible change in control of the company, Three of Paramount's most senior executives will run the company, according to a statement released on Monday. Bloomberg News Entertainment editor Chris Paul Mary is in our Los Angeles bureau and
he joins us right now with the latest. Chris, as I mentioned when this news broke on TV, not at all a surprise that Backish is out. He's been at the company since ninety seven. The reporting around this over the last few days has said that he'll be out. With surprises to me is who's taking over for backsh It's not one person, it's three.
Yes, And I can't really think of a company that's had three CEOs.
Your CEO, no, your CEO, no, you're CEO.
Sometimes they've had two and that works and doesn't work, but three, I haven't heard of before. It's an unusual situation because they are negotiating this deal with David Ellison that would represent a change of control. If that happens, he would become the CEO. So that's clearly part of what's going on here and what happens if that doesn't go through. If they continue with this something, probably paramout's going to get asked a lot.
So the stock was higher after, but the company also reported earnings. Do you get a sense of how much the shareholders of the company are kind of embracing this news of now three CEOs.
Well, I think this sort of stock bumps started with we Knowther's reported over the weekend that there was sweetened terms for the sky Dance offer. They're going to invest the three billion dollars in paramount, which could be used for debt reduction, and do so at a premium to what the current stock is trading at. So I think the market sort of some degree is responding to that. But the numbers earnings wise were good. I don't think
that was Bob Mackers's problem. Revenue was up. They had the Super Bowl in the quarter, so that was boost but other numbers were good as well.
So what was Backash's problem. Why not have Backash go all the way until an acquisition?
Very good question. It appears that he was opposed to this deal happening and was sort of vocal in the last earnings call saying that he thought whatever deal Paramount worked out should benefit all shareholders right now, the Skydiance offer would certainly buy out the Redstones families controlling share of the company, but would possibly dilute the other shareholders through this merger with Skydance, So his opposition probably is
one of the factors involved here. He's also made some missteps that ultimately the board lost confidence in him.
So if this deal with Skydance actually goes through, and again it's a little complicated here because of the different share classes and who has control, would the Redstone family have any ownership of the new company.
They're going to keep some residual shareholder in the company, but won't be the controlling shareholders anymore. So they have this voting stock Class A shares they owned seventy seven percent of those. Those would be bought by David Ellison and his group.
Can you give us a few details about the deal with Skydance Media led by David Ellison. What would that actually look like for the consumers of Paramount.
Yeah, it's very complicated. So it's a three part deal really. So they would buy National Amusements, which is the holding company the Redstones own their controlling shares of Paramount, and also some movie theaters. Skuidance would also invest three billion dollars directly into Paramount, and they would merge Skydance and
get Paramount shares for that as well. And that's probably the most controversial part of the deal because the valuation of Skydance is on a order of five billion dollars and its profits are not nearly what one would pay for the price, So that's probably the most contentious part, even though, mind you, none of these deal details have actually been announced publicly. This is all folks like us reporting on.
It, all right, Well, we certainly appreciate the folks like you, Chris, who are reporting on this and explaining and breaking it down for our audience. Bloomberg News entertainmentitor Chris Paul Mary live out there in California or Los Angeles Bureau