Whose Paramount Is It Anyway?
The deal that is expected to install Skydance chief David Ellison as chairman, CEO and hopefully savior of Paramount Global is a labyrinth of entities, trusts and transactions. Also potentially complicated, assuming the deal closes sometime next year, is the question of control. Skydance sources say 41-year-old David will select the board and run things entirely independent of his father, Larry Ellison, also known as the world’s fifth-richest man, worth an estimated $178 billion, per Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. But Larry, 80, will own the controlling shares. Having previously bestowed billions on David and his sister, Megan, Larry has now backed his son to the tune of $6 billion as David pursued his dream of running a legacy studio. What role, if any, Larry will play at the new Paramount is not clear.…