latimes.com
Paramount Global’s months-long internal struggles spilled into full view Monday as Chief Executive Bob Bakish was ousted and pressure mounted for the company’s directors to accept — or reject — a takeover bid by David Ellison’s Skydance Media. Moments before the company announced its first-quarter earnings, Paramount issued a statement announcing Bakish’s departure. The company said three of its top entertainment executives would run the firm: Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins; CBS CEO George…
7 days ago
latimes.com
Influential documentary filmmaker Lourdes Portillo, who used her art as social activism to illuminate the struggles of the working class, has died. The Mexico native, who made “The Devil Never Sleeps” in 1994, and received an Oscar-nomination for her 1985 film, “The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo,” died Saturday morning at her home in San Francisco, according to her friend and fellow filmmaker Soco Aguilar. Portillo, who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer several months ago, was 80. “She wa…
14 days ago
latimes.com
Sony Pictures Entertainment is in talks to join Apollo Global Management in its $26-billion bid for Paramount Global — a partnership that would boost the private equity firm’s efforts to wrangle the prize. While the talks are preliminary, the two sides have been hashing out the contours of a deal that would have the Culver City-based Sony film and television studio take the lead in the partnership. If a deal were consummated, Sony would control a significant majority stake in Paramount, accordin…
17 days ago
latimes.com
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. slogged through layoffs, box office bombs, devastating Hollywood labor strikes and a lagging stock price, but for Chief Executive David Zaslav, 2023 was a very good year. Zaslav received a compensation package valued at $49.7 million, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . The amount was 26% higher than his 2022 total pay plan of $39.3 million. The total keeps Zaslav, 64, among an elite class of the U.S.’s most handsomely paid…
17 days ago
latimes.com
Terry Tang, who has been leading the Los Angeles Times newsroom since late January on an interim basis, has been formally named executive editor. The Times’ owners, Dr. Patrick and Michele Soon-Shiong, made the announcement Monday. Since being tapped as interim executive editor, Tang moved rapidly to reorganize the newsroom, form her own leadership team and put a heavier emphasis on traditional news gathering. Tang is the first female editor in The Times’ 142-year history. “Terry in short order…
28 days ago
latimes.com
Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger has prevailed in the company’s shareholder fight against billionaire dissident Nelson Peltz. But the celebrated executive’s most challenging task still looms: selecting someone to fill his big shoes. The 73-year-old chief is set to retire in 2026 — assuming he steps down as planned. For decades, succession planning has been among the Burbank giant’s most vexing issues. During Iger’s first, highly successful 15-year run, he delayed his planned retirement m…
about 1 month ago
latimes.com
Walt Disney Co. on Wednesday fought off a bruising challenge from billionaire investor Nelson Peltz as shareholders delivered their overwhelming support for chief executive Bob Iger and the company’s nominated board members, ending a costly campaign against the Burbank entertainment giant’s leadership and strategy. In Disney’s most consequential board election in 20 years — and one of corporate America’s most closely watched proxy contests in recent memory — Peltz fell short in his long-shot bid…
about 1 month ago
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Walt Disney Co.’s biggest boardroom showdown in 20 years culminates this week with an election that has already reverberated throughout the Burbank entertainment giant. Billionaire Nelson Peltz has waged a nearly six-month battle for a seat on Disney’s board of directors. A smaller activist group, Blackwells Capital, joined the fray with three other candidates. Disney has offered its own slate of 12 nominees, including two new board members. On the surface, the opposition campaigns do not threat…
about 1 month ago
latimes.com
One week before a highly anticipated shareholder vote, Walt Disney Co. sustained another blow as a second advisory firm recommended that investors elect billionaire Nelson Peltz to the entertainment giant’s board of directors. Peltz, the Trian Fund Management founder, has gained steam in the closing weeks of his proxy campaign against Disney’s board. On Wednesday, advisory firm Egan-Jones recommended that investors dump two longtime Disney board members — Maria Elena Lagomasino and Michael B.G.…
about 1 month ago
latimes.com
Rejecting Walt Disney Co.’s bid for boardroom stability, an influential corporate research firm has recommended that shareholders add billionaire Nelson Peltz to the Disney board, raising the stakes for next month’s proxy showdown. On Thursday, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. — which advises the large institutional funds on corporate governance matters — recommended that investors vote to give the vocal Trian Fund Management founder a coveted seat on Disney’s board of directors. ISS made…
about 2 months ago
latimes.com
A blistering battle between Beverly Hills-based United Talent Agency and ex-partner Michael Kassan centers on alleged over-the-top spending and a $950,000-per-year expense account, a perk that Kassan said he received as part of the company’s 2021 takeover of his firm. UTA bought Kassan’s MediaLink marketing consultancy for $125 million in December 2021, part of an effort to deepen the talent agency’s relationships with major brands, such as Google, that MediaLink had access to. At the time, UTA…
about 2 months ago
