On Thursday, and closing From 8.4 billion dollars in merger Paramount Global Skydance Media entered a new era for the famous entertainment company, and the new Hollywood Mongols: David EllisonParamount CEO, Skydance.
Ellison, a movie and the founder of SkySance, has quickly become a familiar name amid intense media coverage of the largest deal in entertainment and the media this year. His father and partner in the deal, Oracle The founder, Larry Ellison, has long been famous as one of the richest men in the world. However, the other person is the other man behind the deal: Cardinal Jerry From Redbird Capital.
With a 2 billion dollars Redbird’s share in Skydance’s 8 billion dollars in acquisition From Paramount Global, Cardinale was a 19 -month -old player before the Energy transfer from Shari Redstone to Elisons.
Before closing the deal, Paramount was already showing signs of financial austerity similar to private stocks. Under Redston, the company pushed Driving workers is sweeping And separating the roads with many paid executives-Ellison promised to find $ 2 billion from cost savings.
Paramount also to cut Late offer with Stephen Colbert A 16 million dollar claimed by President Donald Trump on A. 60 minutes interview. After Skydance agreed to “make sure that the programming of the new company embodies a variety of views from all over the political and ideological spectrum”, and “the removal of bias that undermined confidence in the national media”, the Chairman of the FCC Board of Directors from Trump Agree on the deal On July 24. The movements obtained criticism from those who saw that Trump’s settlement was an indirect bribe and the cancellation of Colbert, a repeated critic of Trump, as an attempt in favor of the curry with the president.
Now, with the deal, the Cardinal’s effect is clearly determined: Redbird holds 22.5 % of Paramount’s voting rights while David Elison will carry 50 % of the voting rights and his father will keep the remaining 27.5 %. Many company nets in C-SUite: Company management Besides Ellison, there are two Cardinale -Jeff Shell as President and Indy Gordon in the operations role. Cardinal did not respond to requests to comment on this story.
The IP engine comes to Hollywood
Cardinal’s rise to Hollywood is a passenger of his maker, a separate moment for the entertainment industry. Private stock companies Movements were made In Hollywood for some time, but Redbird’s share in Paramount Deal is so much larger.
Unlike the Mongols, creativity and breeds that have traditionally ruled studios, Cardinale is a stranger – a Wall Street producer, not Paramount’s back culture. But it is a feature that sees it as an advantage. “I really think that being from outside this ecosystem – or at least one foot, feet is one – is a great competitive advantage,” is He said luckPolo Confo In 2024, “I am not dealing with the main headlines. I am not dealing with emotional. I am not going to go to the Academy Awards.”
Cardinal-a former researcher in Rhodes and the type of financing who use terms such as “technological instability”-will take a real discipline of the iconic studio, but it is troubled to survive in the live broadcast.
This unforgettable strategic discipline is huge in sport and entertainment. “We are an IP liquefy engine, Cardinal said luck last year. “This is what we do.” In Paramount, it is possible that it means taking advantage of the collection of movies, shows, shows and other IP in the legendary Hollywood studio. “We must be able to make half -cost movies,” Cardinal He said puck. “We must be able to make the original content of half the cost.”
Although Paramount is the highest Cardinal investment, it is not for the first time the first general appearance of the deals maker. The 58 -year -old was betting on About three decadesAfter cutting his teeth on Goldman Sachs before the establishment of Redbird (his last name) in 2014. The company now has $ 12 billion of management assets and six international offices. Although it was built an Empire for Millions of dollars, it was previously told Cardinal luck He rejects the term “Mogul”, and simply describes himself as an investor.
The world of financing was not always attractive to Cardinal, it is He said Bloomberg“I was not one of the children and Erton who knew I wanted to go to Wall Street from the first day,” he said. Cardinal grew up in the outskirts of Philadelphia and attended Harvard University, where heavyweight crew gathered and graduated from Magna Laud before studying politics and political theory in Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship. While working at the Tokyo Research Center, Cardinal began thinking about a financing profession, where he joined Goldman as an analyst in 1992 at the company’s offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, and later moved to New York.
In 2001, Cardinal helped persuade Malik Yanxiz George Steinburner to launch the regional sports network yes, as Goldman sank an investment in the 335 million dollars in the project. Cardinale saw the opportunity for Lianes to achieve income from their content – names, analysis, and original programming – instead of selling broadcast rights to the local cable. The risky yes deal achieved hundreds of millions of annual cash flow and Cardinal’s High Partnership Promotion in Goldman in 2004. After eight years, Goldman and Provence Eyeite sold a 49 % share in Yes to News Corp with an evaluation of more than $ 3 billion-over the initial evaluation of about $ 850 million in 2001.
Cardinal’s success with Yankees helped to prove what would have become a founding thesis of his investment strategy empire: While platforms, coordination and technologies have shifted, the audience’s association with IP is convincing (floors athletic team, great films, loved character) continues. This durability allows liquidation through new endless business models with the development of the scene.
“I am able to look at the sports industry, the media and entertainment industry, as ecosystems,” Cardinal Make luck In 2024Speaking of his ownership of the Italian football team AC MILAN and its efforts to replace the team of a century in a century with a yard similar to the new Yanky stadium. “Then what I do is that I am looking for removal. I am looking for areas where improvement, development and professionalism are needed.”
Cardinal Goldman left in 2013 and founded Ridberd the following year at $ 665 million in the opening fund. The Cardinale strategy in Redbird was constantly following its form: obtaining distinct intellectual property, simplifying costs, and then liquefying it.
This priority is Reflected In the company’s portfolio. In addition to MILAN, with millions of international fans, Redbird bought a 11 % stake in Fenway SPORTS GROUP, the holding company that owns Boston Red Sox, the English football team Liverpool, and the New England regional sports network. After that, with the help of FSG, Redbird invested at Lebron James’s Entertainment Stars in the American Professional League SpringHill, in a $ 725 million deal.
Outside of sports, Redbird Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, ARTISTS EQUITY, supported, and the production company behind the famous British TV program has gained critically Screw And show the reality game Al Houc’a Game: Challenge. In 2024, the company entered the news game, Approval of purchase UK publications Telegraph and Spectator In addition to the participating investors from the United Arab Emirates, in the deal of its sponsor by former CNN president Jeff Zucker. Despite the objections of some in the UK government about the foreign influence on British media institutions, in May, Telegraph The acquisition was taken into account of $ 640 million.
Cardinal also supported David Ellison’s vision for a long time for Skydance. In 2020, Redbird became the second largest investor in Ellison, which led to an increase in capital by $ 275 million. Cardinal helped collect an additional $ 400 million for umbrellas in 2022.
For Cardinal, the content is the king
Cardinal Bob Eyger friend, Disney CEO, Kardinal sees naturally when it comes to culture. “It gets the fact that the great IP is the equivalent of property on the beach,” Iger He said luck last year. “He knows that the world needs entertainment, and regardless of the means they get, or how this is achieved, there is a real value for it and long -term.”
So far, this spirit has resulted in the fruits of Cardinal. But the way for Paramount is full of tremendous challenges: a backward TV sector, billions of debt, brutal broadcasting wars, and the workforce is still reeling from multiple layoffs – and it is possible that it will come more billions of dollars in the discounts that Ellison pledged. The promise of the new leadership depends on the “transformation” now on whether they can pay efficiency without removing the creative nucleus.
To do this, Paramount, Skydance, is likely to have surveyed the IP improvement strategy. In the Cardinale model, all the acquisition aims to excel market and innovation sessions, prosperity over operational rigor and “adaptable statute” that exceeds the mindset of the old cup assets.
Paramount, with more than 100 years of science, more than 1,200 movies, and distribution rights for thousands of other films, is full of platform’s value.
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