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, certainly one of 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 claimed to be in the combo as well.
Zucker and Shell have a couple of things in common, and it goes beyond now finding themselves at the identical firm. Shell, you may 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 together 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 often known as RedBird IMI. It makes his potential involvement in Paramount a bit of 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
Each Shell and Zucker were ousted from NBCU and CNN, respectively, for similar controversies. Getty Images
The sale talks, as most individuals in media know, have been happening 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 could 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 value of around $140 billion and he is claimed to be a backer.
Zucker joined RedBird after he was ousted from CNN over failing to reveal a consensual relationship together with his p.r. chief. REUTERS
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 certainly one of the highest financiers on this line of labor.
My sources say David Ellison is keenly fascinated with 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’
RedBird Capital is behind Skydance Media’s ongoing motives to take over Paramount Entertainment. Getty Images
One problem: Shari Redstone wants numerous money — not less than $4 billion is the number I keep hearing — and for an asset that’s losing value by the day.
Also, this isn’t a traditional 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 often known as National Amusements, a holding company created by pops.
Skydance/RedBird can 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 circuitously profit from the acquisition, and so they’re among the sharpest-elbowed investors you could find in Mario Gabelli and Warren Buffett. They are going to want their pound of flesh if this thing happens or they are going to sue, people near the deal say.
Skydance/RedBird can be buying her stake in National Amusements and “backing into ownership” of Paramount’s assets. Annie Wermiel/NY Post
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 wish greater than money and rainmakers to run a media company; you wish operational types, and that’s why people within the media business keep talking up the role of Jeff and Jeff.