Redstone’s Dilemma: Give Paramount Investors a Vote or Not?
- Most of the stock is held by investors with no voting rights
- They got no say-so when Redstone combined CBS and Viacom
Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has a tough decision looming: whether to let other stockholders have a say if she agrees to sell her family’s holdings to producer David Ellison and merge the film and TV giant with his Skydance Media.
The Redstones own less than 10% of Paramount but control 77% of the voting stock in the company, the parent of CBS, MTV and other media businesses. There’s no requirement that they get approval for a deal from all of Paramount’s investors, but securities law provides a way for a company to avoid costly shareholder litigation by giving everyone a chance to weigh in.