Paramount expected to fire Bakish amid clash with Redstone, FT reports

Paramount (PARA) is expected to fire CEO Bob Bakish amid a clash with the Hollywood group controlled by Shari Redstone as it holds merger discussions with Skydance Media and prepares for another potential bid, The Financial Times’ Christopher Grimes, James Fontanella-Khan, Anna Nicolaou and Antoine Gara report, citing three people familiar with the matter. The company is expected to receive a counterbid from Sony (SONY) and Apollo (APO) as soon as this week, people familiar with the situation say. Redstone installed Bakish as CEO of Viacom in 2016, and he took over as head of the whole company after it merged with CBS in 2019.