media
Who Owns Paramount? David Ellison Took Control of Every Voting Share in 2025
In brief
Who owns Paramount?
The company is now Paramount Skydance Corporation, and its shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker PSKY. Control passed to David Ellison's side on 7 August 2025, when investors behind Skydance — entities controlled by the Ellison family together with affiliates of RedBird Capital Partners — bought National Amusements, Inc. and folded both Paramount Global and Skydance into a new holding company. The renamed NAI, Harbor Lights Entertainment, holds 100 percent of the only voting class of stock.
The Redstone family, who controlled Paramount for decades through Sumner Redstone and later his daughter Shari, no longer holds a controlling stake. David Ellison — son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison — is Chairman and Chief Executive, and is credited in the company's own filings with beneficial ownership of 48.63 percent of the non-voting Class B stock on top of the Class A control block.
The Skydance acquisition: how control changed hands
National Amusements, Inc. was a private theater-chain company that the Redstone family used as their control vehicle for Viacom and later Paramount Global. The mechanism was a two-class structure rather than supervoting shares: Paramount Global's Class A stock carried the votes, its Class B carried none, and NAI held roughly 77.4 percent of the Class A while owning only about 9.5 percent of the two classes combined. sec.gov
The purchase and sale agreement was signed on 7 July 2024, and the deal closed more than a year later, on 7 August 2025. On that closing date the NAI Equity Investors — entities controlled by the Ellison family plus affiliates of RedBird Capital Partners — bought all of the outstanding equity of NAI; Paramount Global and Skydance then became wholly owned subsidiaries of Paramount Skydance Corporation, a holding company incorporated in June 2024 for the purpose. The same investors put $6.0 billion of fresh equity into the business. NAI itself was renamed Harbor Lights Entertainment, Inc. sec.gov
| Shareholder | Disclosed holding | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Harbor Lights Entertainment, Inc. | 100% of Class A (voting) | The former National Amusements, controlled by the Ellison family; 31,500,087 Class A shares |
| David Ellison (all Ellison-family vehicles) | 48.63% of Class B | 600,717,731 Class B shares, including 155 million issuable on warrants |
| RedBird Capital Partners (Gerald Cardinale) | 13.32% of Class B | 149,849,551 Class B shares, including 45 million issuable on warrants |
| All directors and executive officers | 58.67% of Class B | Twelve people as a group, the Ellison and RedBird blocks included |
| Other Class B holders | The balance | 1,080,241,022 Class B shares were outstanding on 20 February 2026; Class B carries no vote |
Class B beneficial ownership disclosed in the 2025 Form 10-K/A (20 February 2026)
Those percentages are the ones the company itself calculates in its filings, and each is worked out on a slightly different base because warrants that a given holder could exercise within 60 days are treated as outstanding for that holder alone. The residual slice is therefore an approximation rather than a disclosed figure. Class A, the class that actually votes, is not split at all: Harbor Lights holds all of it. sec.gov
The Redstone era: Sumner to Shari
Sumner Redstone built the Viacom and CBS media empire over several decades through National Amusements, the theater chain his father had founded. By the 2000s, Sumner controlled two of the largest media companies in the United States through NAI's grip on their voting stock: Viacom (which included MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, and Paramount Pictures) and CBS Corporation (which included the CBS broadcast network, Showtime, and Simon & Schuster).
The corporate lineage is set out in the company's own filings: Viacom Inc. split in two at the end of 2005, with the surviving company renamed CBS Corporation; new Viacom merged back into CBS on 4 December 2019 to form ViacomCBS; and ViacomCBS was renamed Paramount Global on 16 February 2022. sec.gov Sumner Redstone died in 2020, having transferred practical control to his daughter Shari, who chaired Paramount's board until the Skydance closing.
For three decades the Redstone family controlled billions of dollars of media assets through a theater chain, on less than a tenth of the equity. When Shari sold NAI, that structure ended with it.
What Paramount owns: the asset map
Paramount Skydance is one of the most asset-rich media companies in the world, and the scope of its holdings extends well beyond the Paramount movie studio name. Its 10-K describes a portfolio spanning Paramount Pictures, Paramount Television, CBS, CBS News, CBS Sports, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime, Paramount+, Pluto TV and Skydance's animation, interactive and sports divisions. sec.gov
Film & streaming
- Paramount Pictures
- Paramount+ (streaming)
- Showtime / Paramount+ with Showtime
- Paramount Pictures library (100+ years of film)
Broadcast & cable
- CBS (broadcast network)
- MTV, MTV2
- Nickelodeon, Nick Jr.
- Comedy Central
- BET Networks
- CMT
Other assets
- CBS Sports (NFL, March Madness rights)
- Pluto TV (AVOD streaming platform)
- BET+ streaming
- Paramount Television Studios
- Skydance animation, games and sports
Corporate facts
Legal name: Paramount Skydance Corporation
Listed: Nasdaq: PSKY (Class B, non-voting)
HQ: 1515 Broadway, New York, New York
Chairman & CEO: David Ellison
Controlling owner: Harbor Lights Entertainment (Ellison family), 100% of Class A
Scale (2025, per Form 10-K)
Revenue: $29,394M pro forma (2024: $29,213M)
Paramount+ subscribers: 78.9M at 31 Dec 2025
Class B shares outstanding: 1.08 billion
Founded: 1912 (Paramount Pictures)
Frequently asked questions
Does the Redstone family still own Paramount?
No. The Ellison-family and RedBird investors bought all of the outstanding equity of National Amusements — the Redstone control vehicle — on 7 August 2025, and NAI was renamed Harbor Lights Entertainment. The Redstone family no longer appears among the disclosed holders of Paramount Skydance stock. sec.gov
Who is David Ellison?
David Ellison is the son of Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation. He founded Skydance Media in 2006 as a film production and financing company; its credits include Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible films. He signs Paramount Skydance's annual report as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and the company reports him as beneficial owner of all 31,500,087 Class A voting shares through Harbor Lights. sec.gov
Is Paramount the same as Paramount Pictures?
Paramount Pictures is the film studio and is the oldest of the original Hollywood studios (founded 1912). Paramount Skydance Corporation is the listed holding company that owns Paramount Pictures plus CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Showtime, Paramount+ and Pluto TV. The film studio is one division of the larger group.
The bottom line
- The company is Paramount Skydance Corporation and its Class B stock trades on Nasdaq as PSKY. Control passed to David Ellison on 7 August 2025, when Ellison-family and RedBird entities bought National Amusements outright.
- Harbor Lights Entertainment — the renamed NAI — holds 100% of the Class A voting stock. David Ellison is credited with 48.63% of the non-voting Class B; RedBird's Gerald Cardinale with 13.32%.
- The Redstone family, who controlled Paramount for decades on roughly 9.5% of the combined equity but 77.4% of the voting Class A, no longer holds a controlling stake.
- The group's assets include CBS, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET, Showtime and Pluto TV, plus Skydance's animation, games and sports divisions.
- Paramount+ reported 78.9 million subscribers at 31 December 2025, up from 76.1 million a year earlier, on pro forma group revenue of $29.4 billion.