Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Media scion Shari Redstone is set to receive more than half a billion dollars in severance, stock and benefits from the sale of her family’s empire to the Ellison family.
As part of an agreed sale of National Amusements, which controls the media group Paramount through voting stock, Redstone will receive some $180mn in severance and pension benefits, said people familiar with the matter. This is in addition to the sale of her stake in National Amusements, for which she would receive about $350mn, the people added.
Redstone in July gave her final agreement to sell the company behind the Paramount studio to Skydance in a deal that values the new company at $28bn. The deal is expected to close in 2025.
As part of that agreed deal, Skydance is set to pay $1.75bn for National Amusements. In addition to Shari Redstone’s $350mn payout, the proceeds of the sale will be distributed to other members of the Redstone family.
The big payout comes after almost a year of negotiations to sell Paramount to Hollywood studio Skydance, as Redstone looked to seal her family’s legacy and financial future. National Amusements, which held about 80 per cent of the voting shares in Paramount, was founded by her grandfather nearly a century ago. It was expanded by her father through deals that built Paramount from an owner of cinemas into an influential media empire.
Paramount declined to comment on Redstone’s severance package.
After the deal closes, Larry Ellison, Oracle’s billionaire co-founder, will own 77.5 per cent of the holding company — comparable to the Redstone family’s current holdings of voting stock, according to a company filing earlier this week with the US Federal Communications Commission.
Ellison is among the richest people in the world, and has bankrolled Hollywood careers for both of his children, David and Megan, with Skydance and Annapurna Pictures. David Ellison, 41, will take operational control of the new Paramount, as chief executive and chair of the board.
