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Skydances With Wolves

David Ellison’s $8 billion takeover of Paramount is already facing legal challenges, including a new suit from Mario Gabelli, the long-suffering Paramount shareholder who is now questioning whether Shari’s sweetheart deal was just a little too rich. Here, Gabelli explains his beef. Plus: there’s another unexpected wrinkle in the deal.

Mario Gabelli
In the end, Gabelli secured the option of cashing out at $23 per share or rolling over nonvoting stock into New Paramount. So why is he making noises now? Photo: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
July 16, 2024

David Ellison is one step closer to taking full control of Paramount Global, but the legal drama has only begun. There will be shareholder lawsuits, of course, including at least one that is already threatening to spill intimate details from inside the Paramount boardroom. And then there is the legal action brought last week by Mario Gabelli, Paramount’s largest voting shareholder outside of the Redstone family, who is seeking access to the company’s books and records—“Operation Fishbowl,” he’s calling it—to interrogate whether Shari’s sweetheart deal was a little too sweet.