Meet The Other Billionaire Behind Skydance’s Paramount Deal

Forbes

Gerry Cardinale’s firm RedBird Capital Partners is investing $1.8 billion toward Skydance’s $8 billion deal. Here’s how the tycoon became a billionaire—and how he may wield his influence at the new-look Paramount.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnhyatt/2025/08/05/meet-the-other-billionaire-behind-skydances-paramount-deal/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, meet the other billionaire behind Skydance's Paramount deal.

00:07The year-long saga of Skydance Media's $8 billion Paramount Takeover is fit for its own

00:13Paramount Plus miniseries. There's political intrigue with critics slamming departing boss

00:18Shari Redstone's apparent capitulation to Donald Trump to get the deal approved,

00:23including Paramount's agreement to pay $16 million to Trump's future presidential library

00:28to resolve a lawsuit over a 60-minute segment on Kamala Harris, followed by CBS News' announcement

00:34that it was cancelling popular Trump critic Stephen Colbert's late-night show in 2026,

00:40supposedly for financial reasons. Trump celebrated both announcements vociferously.

00:46Then there is the potential family intrigue worthy of a Succession spinoff. David Ellison,

00:52the Skydance founder and former Biden backer behind such films as Top Gun Maverick

00:57and True Grit, is teaming up with his staunch Republican father, Larry Ellison,

01:03who is the second richest person in the world and founder of software giant Oracle.

01:08Flying under the radar, beneath all the high-stakes drama, is Jerry Cardinal,

01:14a private equity investor who is poised to be an influential figure in the new-look Paramount.

01:19His firm, Redbird Capital Partners, is a shareholder in Skydance,

01:24having first invested in 2020. Now the firm is putting in $1.8 billion towards the $8 billion

01:31purchase price. Cardinal will join Paramount as a director and will appoint a yet-to-be-named

01:37second director. Jeff Schell, former CEO of NBCUniversal, who chairs Redbird's sports and

01:43media business, will join Paramount as president. Andy Gordon, head of Redbird's West Coast office,

01:50will become Paramount's chief operating officer and chief strategic officer.

01:55Under the new ownership structure, Redbird will hold 22.5% of Paramount's voting rights,

02:01while David Ellison will hold 50%, and Larry, who is Skydance's biggest investor,

02:06will hold the remaining 27.5%. This complicated familial financial dynamic is likely to make Cardinal

02:14a pivotal voice in scenarios where the Ellisons butt heads. Paramount will become Cardinal's

02:20highest-profile investment, but it's hardly his first big bet. In the worlds of sports,

02:26entertainment, and media, the 57-year-old investor has been striking high-stakes deals

02:30for over a quarter of a century, first at Goldman Sachs, and for the last decade at Redbird,

02:35which he founded in 2014. Redbird bought Italian football club AC Milan for $1.2 billion in 2022

02:43and agreed earlier this year to purchase British broadsheet The Telegraph for £500 million British

02:49pounds, or approximately $660 million. Redbird has backed household names like LeBron James,

02:57Dwayne The Rock Johnson, and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in their independent entertainment ventures.

03:02The firm has also invested a smaller portion of its funds capital, $1.5 billion, on financial services

03:09companies. Redbird's willingness to dive into the nitty-gritty of portfolio companies and their

03:15operations has helped it grow to $12 billion in assets under management, with 100 investment

03:21professionals across six global offices. Speaking on Bloomberg's podcast The Deal last year,

03:27Cardinal said, quote, I like playing shadow entrepreneur and solving problems with capital.

03:33It's been a winning recipe so far. Redbird has delivered 2.5 times gross multiple of capital

03:39and a 33% internal rate of return, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cardinal owns 100%

03:47of Redbird, filing show, and Forbes estimates he is worth $1.8 billion. He declined to comment on his

03:54net worth or be interviewed for this story. The potential rewards from investing in Paramount are great,

04:00but so are the risks. Between the inexorable decline of linear television, competition between streaming

04:07platforms, an existing $14.2 billion long-term debt load, and possible viewer blowback to perceived

04:14paramount. Paramount faces a raft of challenges under its new ownership group. From Cardinal's

04:20perspective, the new Paramount, with its more than 1,200 film titles, distribution rights to another

04:262,400 films, and roster of television networks emblazoned in the American viewer psyche, is the

04:32perfect candidate to receive the Redbird treatment. After the Skydance-Paramount deal was announced,

04:37speaking last year on The Town, Puck founder Matthew Bologna's podcast, Cardinal said,

04:42quote,

04:43What we do at Redbird is we look for ways of monetizing world-class IP. This is an over 100-year-old

04:50business with really high-quality intellectual property. We're not just deal guys looking to

04:55do a deal. We're not just private equity guys looking to go buy something.

04:58For full coverage, check out John Hyatt's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

05:07Thanks for tuning in.

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