If Purchase Goes Through, Sony To Sell CBS, Paramount+

Future plans for Star Trek remain on hold due to possible sale of its owner. Paramount, CBS and related properties are currently open to be sold as shareholder Shari Redstone looks to unload her stake in the company. The business aspect gets complicated but basically her stake is such that she is effectively the single owner of the company as her decisions are law regardless of what other shareholders may want. As part of the sale there are two suitors - a partnership of Sony with Apollo Global Management or Skydance Media. If Skydance sounds familiar, they are the ones that produced the last three Star Trek films, Mission Impossible films, Top Gun: Maverick and more.

 According to Deadline, if Sony and Apollo buy Paramount, the plan (partly for US legal reasons) is to sell CBS and all related networks such as MTV. The move is a bit ironic as it wasn't that long ago that CBS and Paramount had merged and started things down the path to a sell. The Skydance deal is more complicated and not just a straight purchase. It too will likely involve off loading properties but exactly what is unknown.

What does this mean for Star Trek? Since Skydance to a degree made its bones on Star Trek, I am sure they are open to continuing the franchise for TV and movies. If Sony wins out, they probably do not care at all about Star Trek as the franchise has never been that popular in Japan and the movies have under performed in the States. On top of that Trek is owned by Paramount so any attempt to make a TV show would come with higher costs. Not just due to licensing the property from Paramount but also the shows are not cheap to make due to the visual effects required. Considering all the streaming services are trying to save money, they are not going to pay for seasons of a show with iffy international demand, that they don't own and can be pulled from their services after the contract ends.

If Skydance plans to keep the company intact, then a merger with another streamer is more likely but they would probably retain part ownership of that merged result. Therefore Star Trek on TV is more likely as it would all remain under one roof. When or even if Paramount will sell remains up in the air as it seems Redstone isn't pleased with either company plan. Technically the best benefit to shareholders is the Sony purchase.

People may bring up fiduciary duty but know that is essentially nonsense. Companies are not actually required by law or Wall Street to be make money for shareholders or make decisions that might have financial gain but is bad long term for a company. Shareholders already have recourse if they don't like the C-Suite decisions. Its not remotely related to some duty to profit. For example Amazon spent the first 15 years or so years of its existence not making a profit. Twitter was never profitable the entire time it was a public company.

Personally I hope the company doesn't sell and instead starts making decisions that make better use of their properties. For example merging Paramount+ with a partner, licensing out their library to other streamers, working moves to increase international sales and the like. The future of the company in its current form is still new and can be strong. It just may need better leadership with a better vision for what that could be. I do not see any sell plan that doesn't including breaking up major portions of the company regardless of who buys it. Nor do I see a sell have any positive effect for Star Trek's future as I suspect it will just end the TV portion of the franchise once again and stall movie plans indefinitely. Fingers crossed that all the sale deals fall through.