As Paramount goes through a difficult time a rocky week marked by the departure of its CEO and the expiration of its exclusive merger talks with Skydance without reaching an agreement, Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, reveals that his company has divested its entire stake in Paramount.
During Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on Saturday, Buffett admitted, "We sold it all, and we lost quite a bit of money, that happens in this business too." He also took full responsibility for the decision to sell the Paramount stock.
According to the latest filings, Berkshire held 63.3 million shares of Paramount Global at the end of 2023. The company disclosed a $2.6 billion stake in Paramount in 2022 and acquired even more shares after that, but now they're no longer holding any.
Buffett expressed, "Owning Paramount made me think even deeper, but I certainly looked harder about the whole question of what people do with their leisure time and what the governing principles are of running an entertainment business of any sort, whether it’s sports or movies or whatever it might be." He added, "I think I’m smarter now than I was a couple years ago, but I also think I’m poorer because I acquired the knowledge in the matter I did."
After a month of exclusive talks between Paramount and Skydance, the window for a deal expired on Friday without a deal, indicating that one is unlikely to happen. Skydance submitted a revised offer earlier this week to address concerns that the deal favors non-executive chairwoman Shari Redstone over other investors. Major investors have cautioned that they may take legal action if the Skydance deal or any other bid does not fairly benefit shareholders.
Ahead of the expiration of the exclusive talks and just before the company's Q1 earnings report, Paramount CEO Bob Bakish was removed from his position and replaced by a group of executives forming an “Office of the CEO” — CBS CEO and president George Cheeks, Paramount Media Networks CEO and president Chris McCarthy, and Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon CEO and president Brian Robbins.
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have jointly submitted a non-binding, $26 billion all-cash offer for Paramount. Under this proposal, Sony would take a majority stake and operational control, while Apollo would hold a minority stake. However, such a deal would likely face regulatory scrutiny due to restrictions on foreign ownership.
Currently, Paramount is operating independently.
