With Paramount, Ellison Should Be Careful What He Wishes For

David Ellison should be careful what he wishes for. The son of Oracle chair Larry Ellison is reportedly nearing victory in his bid for TV and film company Paramount Global—to be financed with help from his dad—despite competition from Apollo. The last time there was a takeover battle for Paramount was almost exactly 30 years ago, when Sumner Redstone dueled Barry Diller over a period of nearly six months from the late summer of 1993 into early 1994. Diller ended up losing the battle to Redstone, whose daughter, Shari, is now selling to Ellison. In hindsight, though, Diller was the real winner.

The company that Redstone is selling is a shadow of its former self, a victim of cord cutting, which has devastated the TV business that accounts for most of Paramount’s earnings. Shari Redstone is reportedly selling her stake for $2 billion, a big premium to its current market value. But even the inflated price is only about half what the stake was worth in 1995, a year after the Paramount takeover battle. In contrast, Diller went on to create a successful internet and media empire that at various times has spanned companies such as Match, Expedia, LendingTree and Dotdash Meredith. When I emailed Diller today asking whether in hindsight he was glad to have lost the Paramount battle, I got a quick response: “in a word, YES,” noting that “If I’d gotten Paramount…I’d never have gotten the chance to play in the internet revolution.”