A recent development at entertainment giant Paramount Skydance (PSKY) might end up making a pretty decent show, once its final result emerges. But for now, it has left Paramount down a senior executive as Jeff Shell has departed the company. Paramount Skydance shares were down fractionally in the closing minutes of Thursday’s trading.
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Essentially, Shell decided to depart of his own volition, reports note, to focus on “litigation.” The litigation in question descends from a lawsuit last month filed by R.J. Cipriani. Cipriani claimed he provided Shell with 18 months of “crisis communications services” between 2024 and 2026 for no compensation. Cipriani claimed that he would instead receive help from Shell himself to adapt an English-language version of a Spanish show, but that help never materialized. Cipriani is now seeking $150 million.
Shell, for his part, is counter-suing for defamation and extortion, calling it a “shakedown” in search of a “massive payday” for services that Shell never asked for in the first place. Cipriani’s suit expanded, meanwhile, adding CEO David Ellison and other company brass to the suit as well.
Payday to Walk Away
Interestingly, Paramount will need that $150 million to pay off a golden parachute planned to be given to Warner CEO David Zaslav. Zaslav is on track to receive $550 million as part of his payout connected to the Paramount / Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) deal. And this deal does not sit well with investors, as shareholder advisory firm ISS considers it “unwarranted.”
The deal includes what ISS calls “problematic” tax reimbursements, as well as “accelerated stock vesting.” For these reasons, ISS is calling on investors to vote no on the deal on April 23, when the special shareholder meeting kicks in. But the shareholder vote is considered advisory in nature, which means it may not actually matter what shareholders think, only what the board thinks.
Is Paramount Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Sell consensus rating on PSKY stock based on five Holds and five Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 0.92% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PSKY price target of $11.38 per share implies 4.74% upside potential.
