Recently, "Mission: Impossible 8: Reckoning" produced by Paramount is being screened worldwide. However, the group's chairman Shari Ellin Redstone is not having an easy time: on the one hand, the acquisition deal with Skydance Media, another producer of the "Mission: Impossible" series, has reached a deadlock; what is more troublesome is that Paramount's lawsuit with the current US President Trump is in a stalemate.
Skydance deal halted by government agencies
Sally Redstone, 71 years old this year, actually had the idea of retiring a long time ago. In July last year, she reached an agreement with Skydance's owner David Ellison to sell the controlling stake of Paramount Global for $8 billion. At that time, media around the world reported this major industry news with the title of Paramount's change of ownership. After all, Paramount, founded in 1912, is the second oldest traditional film studio in Hollywood. It owns valuable IP assets such as "The Godfather", "Star Trek", "Indiana Jones", "Top Gun" and "Mission Impossible", and is still one of the most important film companies in the global film industry.
Classic IPs such as "The Godfather", "Indiana Jones" and "Star Trek" all belong to Paramount.
However, more than ten months have passed, and July is approaching, but Paramount's change of ownership is still a long way off. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which is responsible for reviewing and approving the transaction, has not yet given its nod. In other words, it seems that Skydance's desire to become Paramount's new owner is still a long way off.
The reason why this deal was difficult to complete may be the ups and downs of the US political situation in the past year and a half. When Paramount and Skydance reached a consensus in July last year, Biden was still the owner of the White House, but now it has been replaced by Trump, who has entered the White House for the second time. Before that, Trump and Kamala Harris, the candidate put forward by the Democratic Party, also had a real contest. During this process, many American media’s preference for the Democratic Party and prejudice against Trump have long been no secret.
Trump sued Paramount over claims that CBS's flagship news program "60 Minutes" glorified its competitors.
To this end, Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS's flagship news program "60 Minutes" as early as last October when he was running for office, accusing them of artificially editing the interview with his opponent Harris and deliberately beautifying her image, suspected of interfering in the election. To this end, he named CBS's parent company Paramount Global Group as the defendant, demanding $10 billion in compensation, and later further increased the compensation to a sky-high price of $20 billion, and publicly threatened to revoke CBS News' broadcast license.
You know, Paramount Global's market value is only over $8 billion, and $20 billion in compensation is like a fantasy. There is certainly a lot of room for negotiation, just like the various political and economic policies proposed by Trump after he took office. However, the defendants also have different opinions on whether to negotiate with him or just wait for the court's decision.
Finally, Bill Owens, the executive producer of 60 Minutes, who has always insisted on reporting truthfully without bias, has recently chosen to resign, indicating that the "pro-war" party has withdrawn on its own. Under the premise of "pro-peace", Paramount recently offered to pay the president $15 million in order to reach an out-of-court settlement. However, the Trump team rejected the price on the spot. According to internal sources, the president demanded at least $25 million in compensation and asked CBS News to publicly apologize to him on the show.
Paramount's choice of settlement is not difficult to understand. Although Trump has never publicly said "If you don't pay, we won't approve the deal," and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has also solemnly stated that whether or not to approve the deal has nothing to do with the lawsuit, anyone with a discerning eye can see that the relationship here is probably not as clear as it appears on the surface.
The current FCC Chairman Brandon Carr, who holds the power of life and death, has always been a loyal supporter of Trump and held this position during his last presidency. After Trump entered the White House for the second time, he immediately appointed Carr to head the FCC again. The latter lived up to expectations and quickly launched an investigation into a number of American media, vowing to crack down on those mouthpieces that had slandered Trump.
George Stephanopoulos (right), who once interviewed Trump, was sued for defamation because of his inappropriate use of words.
Before Paramount, ABC, a subsidiary of Disney Group, had already yielded at the end of last year and paid Trump $15 million to reach an out-of-court settlement. The incident originated in March 2024, when ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos talked about the case of American female writer Elizabeth Jane Carroll suing Trump for sexual assault on the show. The jury did find Trump guilty of sexual assault, but anchor George Stephanopoulos used the word "rape" instead of "sexual abuse" on the show, so he was sued by Trump for defamation.
At the end of last year, seeing Trump successfully elected, Disney and ABC chose to bow their heads and, in addition to paying huge compensation, publicly apologized to the president.
The Democratic Party said strongly that "no compromise"
In the following six months, Hollywood film companies were completely subdued by Trump. First, they revoked various diversity (DEI) policies that they had implemented for many years, and then they were at a loss for what to do after Trump threatened to impose heavy taxes on films shot and produced overseas. Now, except for the new lawsuit initiated by the National Public Radio (NPR) at the end of last month, Trump's lawsuit against large media organizations only has the one between Paramount and CBS unresolved, which has almost symbolic significance, that is, the last bastion of press freedom in Hollywood and the United States.
Paramount, whose logo features a snow-capped mountain, is the second oldest film company in Hollywood.
Therefore, the Democratic Party, which had been weak in the past six months, also stood up and bit Paramount's head Sally Redstone. Some played the good cop and encouraged her, urging her not to give in or choose to reconcile; some played the bad cop, such as Democratic Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden (Oregon), who warned Redstone that if she chose to pay, it would likely constitute bribery.
The Freedom of the Press Foundation, an American nonprofit organization that holds shares in Paramount, also sent a warning letter to the chairman of Paramount Group last week, stating that if a settlement is reached with Trump on the lawsuit against CBS, the organization will file a lawsuit against Paramount, accusing it of "wasting company assets."
California Senators Josh Baker and Thomas Mbogo have also written to CBS executives Bill Owens and others who resigned earlier, asking them to attend the hearing and expose the inside story. "What is worrying is that Paramount's settlement agreement may have a chilling effect on investigative journalists and political news in the United States," the two state legislators declared. "If a settlement is reached, it means that when politically motivated lawsuits are combined with government regulatory threats, they will eventually be able to do whatever they want. This will undermine the American public's trust in CBS News and even other media... Paramount's compromise will also shake the two pillars of liberal democracy: a free media and a fair legal regulatory system."
Sally Redstone (right) and producer Nancy Spielberg attend a screening of "Children of October 7th" in April.
The Democratic Party's words were quite strong, which made Ms. Redstone feel caught in a dilemma. She is the daughter of the late American Jewish tycoon Summer Redstone. She studied law in college and later joined the family business National Amusements to help her father make the American cinema chain even bigger and stronger. Through a series of mergers, she eventually swallowed up the old Hollywood film studio Paramount.
However, in 2023, due to multiple reasons including the impact of the epidemic, she decided to sell Paramount. After repeated rounds of negotiations, Skydance Media was finally decided to take over last summer. Originally, both parties believed that the government regulatory process could be completed in the first half of 2025. Unexpectedly, Trump took office again, breaking their expectations. The original review deadline of April 7 has long passed. According to the plan, the review period will be delayed by 90 days to July 9. If the review cannot be completed by then, it can be postponed for another 90 days until October this year.
"Mission: Impossible 8: Reckoning" is jointly produced by Paramount and Skydance.
This deal is a typical example of a small company swallowing an elephant. Skydance Media, which wanted to acquire Paramount, was only established in 2006. Its owner, David Ellison, born in 1983, is the son of Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle. It was with the investment from his father and the assistance from Redbird Capital that he succeeded in acquiring Paramount. However, when he opened the champagne when the agreement was reached in July last year, he probably did not expect that, as the year was about to pass, he still had not officially moved into Paramount's headquarters at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.
