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Ellison’s Long Deleveraged Recap Journey Into Night

News and notes on the viability of David Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s Paramount promises, plus Zaz’s stock conundrum.

David Ellison
Will the Ellisons achieve any of the vaunted technological innovations they’ve been promising, and if so, with those innovations be significant enough to move the EBITDA needle? If Ellison and Shell can deliver, the stock should react positively. Photo: JC Olivera/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
August 10, 2025

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This week’s financial news was dominated, of course, by the changing of the guard at Paramount Global after the Ellisons and RedBird Capital struck their $8 billion recapitalization deal with the company, and its largest shareholder, National Amusements Inc. The $16 million ransom payment was made to Trump, regulatory approval was granted, and now the Redstones are finally gone, ending a nearly 40-year run at the company and its predecessors. I think that’s probably good news all around. The family patriarch, Sumner Redstone, wasn’t compos mentis long enough to see what his daughter, Shari, did to the company before he died in 2020, age 97. And I suspect Shari and her family are breathing a serious sigh of relief now that the deal is closed.