Paramount CEO Bob Bakish Steps Down, Will Receive $50 Million Severance Package

Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, 60, is stepping down effective immediately, the company announced Monday. He will a severance package of over $50 million, with $31 million of that in cash.

Bakish, a former management consultant, joined Viacom in 1997. He became CEO of Viacom in 2016 and the CEO of the combined ViacomCBS (now known as Paramount Global) in 2019.

The C-suite shakeup comes as the company continues negotiations to merge with Skydance Media, the company run by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, currently the 5th richest man on the planet.

Due to the uncertain future of the company’s ownership, Paramount is not immediately naming a successor to the CEO position. Instead it has created an Office of the CEO, consisting of three senior company executives: George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

Shari Redstone, chair of the board, said in a statement: “Paramount Global includes exceptional assets and we believe strongly in the future value creation potential of the company. I have tremendous confidence in George, Chris, and Brian. They have both the ability to develop and execute on a new strategic plan and to work together as true partners.”

Redstone, who is the controlling shareholder of the company, is said to have become frustrated with Bakish’s ability to turn the company around in the post-cable era. Bakish also reportedly opposes the merger with Skydance. The New York Times further explained the situation:

But Ms. Redstone’s relationship with Mr. Bakish began deteriorating over the last year, three people familiar with their interactions said. Ms. Redstone perceived that he had missed opportunities to strike lucrative deals for the company, including a sale of its Showtime and BET cable networks, they said. In 2021, the private equity firm Blackstone expressed interest in acquiring the Showtime cable network for at least $5.5 billion, an eye-watering sum for a business in long-term decline, one of the people said. Paramount did not pursue that deal.
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Mr. Bakish’s position became untenable in recent weeks after he presented a long-term plan to the special committee that Ms. Redstone believed did not adequately reflect the input of the company’s top executives, including Mr. Robbins, Mr. Cheeks and Mr. McCarthy, the three people said. Ms. Redstone approved discussions between those executives and representatives of the board, including Charles Phillips. During the conversations, the executives expressed misgivings about the direction of the company, the people said.