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164-445: In 2009, the company entered a five-year partnership to co-produce and co-finance films with Paramount Pictures . This agreement was renewed twice, extending to 2021. On July 7, 2024, Skydance announced its intent to merge with Paramount Global in an $ 8 billion transaction, under an agreement in which Skydance would acquire Paramount's publicly-held controlling shareholder National Amusements , and then perform an all-stock merger with

328-434: A Ben Affleck biographical drama on Nike's Air Jordan shoe line. On October 12, 2022, Kylian Mbappé and his production banner, Zebra Valley, signed a multi-year first-look deal with Skydance Sports. On November 3, 2022, Skydance Sports announced a behind-the-scenes documentary series following the 2024 America's Cup , produced by Free Solo directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin . In November 2022,

492-478: A Jason Kelce documentary for Amazon Prime Video, and the NFL-themed Christmas movie Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story for Hallmark Channel . Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation , commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount , is an American film production and distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global . It

656-500: A fourth commercial network . Paramount Pictures purchased the Hughes Television Network (HTN) including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in 1976. Paramount sold HTN to Madison Square Garden Corporation in 1979. But Diller believed strongly in the concept, and so took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to 20th Century Fox in 1984, where Fox's then freshly installed proprietor, Rupert Murdoch

820-469: A reverse takeover of its listed affiliate KKR Private Equity Investors in exchange for a 21% interest in the firm. In November 2008, KKR announced a delay of this transaction until 2009. Shares of KPE had declined significantly in the second half of 2008 with the onset of the credit crunch . KKR announced that it expected to close the transaction in 2009. In October 2009, KKR listed shares in KKR & Co. on

984-602: A $ 638 million block of stock. While KKR no longer had any ownership of RJR Nabisco by 1995, its original investment would not be fully realized until KKR exited its last investment in 2004. After sixteen years of efforts, including contributing new equity, taking RJR public, asset sales, and exchanging shares of RJR for the ownership of Borden, Inc. , KKR finally sold the last remnants of its 1989 investment. In July 2004, KKR agreed to sell its stock in Borden Chemical to Apollo Management for $ 1.2 billion. In

1148-583: A 1956 remake of his 1923 film The Ten Commandments . DeMille died in 1959. Like some other studios, Paramount saw little value in its film library and sold 764 of its pre-1950 films to MCA Inc. / EMKA, Ltd. (known today as Universal Television ) in February 1958. By the early 1960s, Paramount's future was doubtful. The high-risk movie business was wobbly; the theater chain was long gone; investments in DuMont and in early pay-television came to nothing; and

1312-464: A 43.54% stake. In August 2019, KKR also acquired a majority stake in German payment service provider to the e-commerce industry Heidelpay from AnaCap Financial Partners for more than €600 million. In December 2019, KKR, together with Alberta Investment Management Corporation , acquired a 65% stake in the controversial Coastal GasLink Pipeline project from TC Energy . The pipeline route crosses

1476-464: A 5% to 10% minority stake. Jun Oh was hired by Skydance Media as head of theatrical, interactive and legal affairs in October 2018. In February 2020, RedBird Capital Partners and CJ ENM invested in the company. In April 2020, Skydance Media named veteran entertainment executive Stephanie Kyoko McKinnon to the newly created post of general counsel. On October 20, 2021, Skydance announced Skydance Sports,

1640-499: A Canadian income trust . In 2004 a consortium comprising KKR, Bain Capital and real estate development company Vornado Realty Trust announced the $ 6.6 billion acquisition of Toys "R" Us , the toy retailer. A month earlier, Cerberus Capital Management made a $ 5.5 billion offer for both the toy and baby supplies businesses. The Toys "R" Us buyout was one of the largest in several years. Following this transaction, by

1804-416: A Lesser God and The Accused . During this period, responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Frank Mancuso, Sr. (1984) and Ned Tanen (1984) to Stanley R. Jaffe (1991) and Sherry Lansing (1992). More so than most, Paramount's slate of films included many remakes and television spin-offs ; while sometimes commercially successful, there have been few compelling films of

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1968-467: A Paramount network from 25 years earlier. In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit, which Viacom bought in 2000 – an ironic confluence of events as Paramount had once invested in CBS, and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS, as well. During this period the studio acquired some 30 TV stations to support

2132-524: A bid for a merger with Paramount Communications; this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller 's QVC . But Viacom prevailed, ultimately paying $ 10 billion for the Paramount holdings. Viacom and Paramount had planned to merge as early as 1989. Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper. When Paramount moved to its present home in 1927, it was in the heart of

2296-584: A companion talk show hosted by Aisha Tyler from Archer , under its label company Uncharted. In September 2019, writer David S. Goyer also signed an deal with Skydance Television for an exclusive multi-year overall agreement as well under his Phantom Four company. In April 2019, Daredevil writer Lewaa Nasserdeen joined Skydance Television in an overall deal as well while developing a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama series on Showtime . In May 2019 Alison Schapker , showrunner of Altered Carbon , made an overall deal with Skydance Television to develop series at

2460-474: A documentary on women's basketball player Diana Taurasi . In March 2022, Religion of Sports signed with Skydance Sports to develop, finance, and produce a slate of sports-related shows for multiple platforms, starting with a series called The Owl . It is created and executive produced by Michael Perri and directed by Aurora Guerrero. In April 2022, it was reported that Amazon Studios had partnered with Skydance Sports, Artists Equity , and Mandalay Pictures on

2624-414: A first look deal with Exile Content Studio to develop and produce scripted series. By February 2021, the studio also signed a first look deal with Impact, a global talent network and development accelerator program owned by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer for television productions. In November 2021, Peter Johnson joins Skydance Television as a television executive reporting for Bill Bost. By December 2022, it

2788-454: A first-look TV deal with Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood from their company Undisputed Cinema. Skydance Interactive (formerly known as The Workshop Entertainment ) is a game division which was launched on May 5, 2016. It focuses on developing ambitious titles, managing projects licenses with other developers, and developing software innovative game mechanics as well as for VR and emerging platforms. In May 2017, Chris Hewish

2952-700: A five-month battle with QVC , and completed the merger in July. At the time, Paramount's holdings included Paramount Pictures, Madison Square Garden , the New York Rangers , the New York Knicks , and the Simon & Schuster publishing house. The deal had been planned as early as 1989, when the company was still known as Gulf and Western. Though Davis was named a member of the board of National Amusements , which controlled Viacom, he ceased to manage

3116-676: A foot in the door at the networks, the newly reincorporated Paramount Television eventually became known as a specialist in half-hour situation comedies. In 1968, Paramount formed Films Distributing Corp to distribute sensitive film product, including Sin With a Stranger , which was one of the first films to receive an X rating in the United States when the MPAA introduced their new rating system . In 1970, Paramount teamed with Universal Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation ,

3280-411: A group of divisions that it could sell to reduce debt. Over the coming years, RJR would pursue a number of additional restructurings, equity injections, and public offerings of stock to provide the company with added financial flexibility. KKR contributed $ 1.7 billion of new equity into RJR in July 1990 to complete a restructuring of the company's balance sheet. KKR's equity contribution as part of

3444-550: A group of investors, and a $ 500 million line of credit from J.P. Morgan Chase. Skydance renewed its slate deal with Paramount in the summer of 2013 for four more years. On May 3, 2016, Skydance launched the Skydance Interactive division last year following the acquisition of The Workshop Entertainment and announced in January 2017 for a new story-driven virtual reality game titled Archangel . Skydance also created

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3608-422: A leading producer of food and tobacco products, formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company . In October of that year, Johnson proposed a $ 17 billion ($ 75 per share) management buyout of the company with the financial backing of investment bank Shearson Lehman Hutton and its parent company, American Express . Several days later, Kravis, who had originally suggested

3772-432: A lively history, has been turned into a post-production and music-scoring facility for Warners, known simply as "The Lot". For a time the semi-industrial neighborhood around Paramount was in decline, but has now come back. The recently refurbished studio has come to symbolize Hollywood for many visitors, and its studio tour is a popular attraction. In 1983, Gulf and Western began a restructuring process that would transform

3936-412: A movie factory, turning out sixty to seventy pictures a year. Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill, and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along. In 1933, Mae West would also add greatly to Paramount's success with her suggestive movies She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel . However, the sex appeal West gave in these movies would also lead to the enforcement of

4100-451: A new $ 1 billion credit facility, giving the film and TV studio enhanced flexibility to invest in its business lines. In January 2024, it was reported that David Ellison was interested to buy Paramount Global 's parent company National Amusements from Shari Redstone . Skydance held exclusive talks with Paramount on a merger, but the window expired with no deal in place. An independent committee representing Paramount would go on to recommend

4264-399: A new $ 17.6 billion fund, the KKR 2006 Fund, with which the firm began executing a series of some of the largest buyouts in history. KKR's $ 44 billion takeover of Texas-based power utility TXU in 2007 proved to be the largest leveraged buyout of the mid-2000s buyout boom and the largest buyout completed to date. Among the most notable companies acquired by KKR in 2006 and 2007 were

4428-480: A new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would become a partner in the mid-1970s. Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video (now Paramount Home Entertainment ) and CIC Video , respectively. Robert Evans abandoned his position as head of production in 1974; his successor, Richard Sylbert , proved to be too literary and too tasteful for Gulf and Western's Bluhdorn. By 1976,

4592-425: A new division led by Jon Weinbach that would produce sports-themed content. In January 2022, Skydance reached a non-exclusive multi-year first-look deal with Apple Original Films for a slate of live-action films. Variety reported that the agreement called for two films per-year at a budget of at least $ 125 million each, and Skydance receiving a payout of at least $ 25 million per-film. Skydance would also retain

4756-512: A new, television-trained team was in place headed by Barry Diller and his "Killer-Dillers", as they were called by admirers or "Dillettes" as they were called by detractors. These associates, made up of Michael Eisner , Jeffrey Katzenberg , Dawn Steel and Don Simpson would each go on and head up major movie studios of their own later in their careers. The Paramount specialty was now simpler. " High concept " pictures such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease hit big, hard, and fast all over

4920-616: A number of highly successful investments, the $ 27 million investment in Cobblers ended in bankruptcy. By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear Stearns and Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts, which led to the formation of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Most notably, Bear Stearns executive Cy Lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated investment fund within Bear Stearns. The name had been planned to be Kohlberg Roberts Kravis, but public relations advisors preferred

5084-491: A number of original virtual reality video games based on the expansive world of The Walking Dead universe. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners - Chapter 2: Retribution were to be the inaugural titles co-developed by the two companies. In 2023, they also published a Final Cut version of Arashi: Castle of Sin developed by Endeavor One and was released on December 5, 2023 on next-generation virtual reality consoles. Skydance Animation

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5248-499: A platform to buy media properties, initially completing the $ 310 million divisional buyout of the book club division of Macmillan along with the assets of Intertec Publishing Corporation in May 1989. During the early 1990s, K-III continued acquiring publishing assets, including a $ 650 million acquisition from News Corporation in 1991. K-III went public, however instead of cashing out, KKR continued to make new investments in

5412-756: A preliminary agreement. On July 7, Ellison officially announced his intent for Skydance to take over Paramount Global in an $ 8 billion deal, after having received approval from a special board committee. The deal will be structured so that a group of investors from Skydance will pay $ 2.4 billion in cash to purchase National Amusements, and Paramount Global will pay its Class A and Class B stockholders $ 4.5 billion in cash and shares. Paramount would add $ 1.5 billion in primary capital to its balance sheet. The second phase will see an all-stock merger between Skydance Media and Paramount, valued at $ 4.75 billion. Paramount Global would have 45 days to look for better or matching offers from other bidders before finalizing. Skydance Television

5576-611: A production label named Uncharted in December 2016 to house content which falls outside of the action, sci-fi, or fantasy genres. On March 16, 2017, Skydance launched the Skydance Animation division by forming a multi-year partnership with Madrid-based Ilion Animation Studios . In August 2017, Skydance and Paramount renewed their slate deal for another four years to 2021, with the addition of Skydance's animated films for distribution. On January 25, 2018, Tencent bought

5740-423: A revised offer from Ellison that would see Skydance purchase National Amusements for $ 2 billion. In June 2024, CNBC reported that Skydance and Paramount agreed to terms on a merger, which was awaiting approval from National Amusements. After it was reported on June 11 that merger talks had fallen apart, negotiations between the two were reported to have restarted on July 2, and Skydance was reported to have reached

5904-719: A second channel, the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy ), in 1992. As its name implied, it focused on films and television series within the science fiction genre. Much of the initial programming was owned either by Paramount or Universal. Paramount bought one more television station in 1993: Cox Enterprises ' WKBD-TV in Detroit, Michigan, at the time an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company . In February 1994, Viacom acquired 50.1% of Paramount Communications Inc. shares for $ 9.75 billion, following

6068-518: A series of Jack London movies. Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis, which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation. In 1916, Zukor engineered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged

6232-428: A series which was based on Sword Art Online . After the 2017 announcement of developing a series adaptation of Isaac Asimov 's science fiction book series Foundation with David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman serving as the production's writers. In 2018, Apple TV+ bought the streaming rights to the series renewing it for a second season upon its release in 2021. In June 2018, Dietland aired on AMC along with

6396-459: A single investment in 1990, the first such year since 1982. KKR began to focus primarily on its existing portfolio companies acquired during the buyout boom of the late 1980s. Six of KKR's portfolio companies completed IPOs in 1991, including RJR Nabisco and Duracell . As the new decade began, KKR began restructuring RJR. In January 1990, it completed the sale of RJR's Del Monte Foods to a group led by Merrill Lynch . KKR had originally identified

6560-424: A stable of exclusively-contracted film personnel (outside of Eddie Murphy ); this effort proved unsuccessful and studio president Dawn Steel decided to shut down the department on July 30, 1986. In 1987, Paramount Pictures, MGM/UA Communications Co. and Universal Pictures teamed up in order to market feature film and television product to China, a response to the 25-billion admission tickets that were clocked in

6724-475: A stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille , who would find a suitable site in Hollywood. This place was a rented old horse barn converted into a production facility with an enlarged open-air stage located between Vine Street , Selma Avenue, Argyle Avenue and Sunset Boulevard . It was later known as the Lasky-DeMille Barn . In 1914, their first feature film, The Squaw Man

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6888-558: A stock-swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications. This caused Time to raise its bid for Warner to $ 14.9 billion in cash and stock. Gulf and Western responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time-Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time, forcing Gulf and Western to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the formation of Time Warner . Paramount used cash acquired from

7052-498: Is a division launched by Skydance on October 20, 2021, which is dedicated to sports films , series, and documentaries. It is led by Jon Weinbach . In January 2022, Skydance Sports announced a co-production agreement with Meadowlark Media on sports documentaries. The first two productions under this agreement were Good Rivals —a three-part documentary series on the Mexico–United States soccer rivalry for Amazon Prime, and

7216-436: Is a television production company launched by Skydance on May 1, 2013. The division hired Marcy Ross as division president and a month later, Carolyn Harris joined Skydance Television as vice president. However, in January 2020, Ross left her position transitioning to a deal with the media company, where she continues to be an executive producer on Grace and Frankie , Altered Carbon , Condor and Foundation . Bill Bost

7380-524: Is headquartered at 30 Hudson Yards , Manhattan, New York, with offices in Beijing , Dubai , Dublin , Houston, Hong Kong , London , Luxembourg , Madrid , Menlo Park , Mumbai , Paris , Riyadh , San Francisco , São Paulo , Seoul , Singapore , Shanghai , Sydney and Tokyo . In a 2016 interview with Bloomberg, founder Henry Kravis described KKR in terms of three broad buckets: private markets, public markets, and capital markets. While running

7544-454: Is set to make an investment into Indian digital company Jio Platforms . It was reported that KKR was negotiating to buy a $ 1.5bn stake of a maximum value reach of $ 65bn for Jio Platforms. In late June 2020, KKR announced it would lead a $ 48 million funding round for Artlist, a provider of royalty-free music , sound effects and video. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic , the company reported

7708-467: Is the animation division of Skydance Media; it focuses on animated feature films and television series. It was founded on March 16, 2017. Its first film was Luck and its first short film was Blush . Skydance New Media is a video game development studio founded by Skydance on November 18, 2019, led by Amy Hennig . In October 2021, the studio announced a planned collaboration with Marvel Entertainment for an action-adventure game. In April 2022, it

7872-607: Is the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles . Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company . Hungarian-born founder Adolph Zukor , who had been an early investor in nickelodeons , saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to

8036-494: Is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures ), and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles . In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on the logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning

8200-462: The Bankruptcy Act . On June 4, 1935, John E. Otterson became president of the re-emerged and newly renamed Paramount Pictures Inc. Zukor returned to the company and was named production chief but after Barney Balaban was appointed president on July 2, 1936, he was soon replaced by Y. Frank Freeman and symbolically named chairman of the board. On August 28, 1935, Paramount Pictures

8364-709: The Euronext exchange, replacing KPE, and anticipated a listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010. The public entity represented a 30% interest in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. In December 2011, Samson Investment Company was acquired by a group of private equity investors led by KKR for approximately $ 7.2 billion and Samson Resources Corporation was formed. With the severe downturn in oil and natural gas prices, in September 2015,

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8528-702: The Kaufman Astoria Studios , and Hollywood, California ), and became an early investor in radio, acquiring for the corporation a 50% interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928 (selling it within a few years; this would not be the last time Paramount and CBS crossed paths). By acquiring the successful Balaban & Katz chain in 1926, Zukor gained the services of Barney Balaban (who would eventually become Paramount's president in 1936), his brother A. J. Balaban (who would eventually supervise all stage production nationwide and produce talkie shorts), and their partner Sam Katz (who would run

8692-514: The NFL announced a joint venture with Skydance Sports via its NFL Films division and investment arm 32 Equity to create a "premier global multi-sports production studio". The first projects announced under the venture included a documentary miniseries on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones (which was acquired by Netflix in May 2024), the NFL Draft documentary The Pick is In for The Roku Channel ,

8856-527: The Oregon State Treasury's public pension fund invested in KKR's acquisition of retailer Fred Meyer, Inc. Oregon State remains an active investor in KKR funds. In 1979 KKR completed a risky, precedent-setting ($ 380 million) public-to-private leveraged buyout of a large conglomerate Houdaille Industries , a well-known producer of machine tools, industrial pipes, chrome-plated car bumpers and torsional viscous dampers, which they signed

9020-614: The Paramount Publix Corporation . Eventually, Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldwyn were out by 1917 while Lasky hung on until 1932, when, blamed for the near-collapse of Paramount in the Great Depression years, he was also tossed out. In 1931, to solve the financial problems of the company Zukor hired taxi/rental car magnate John D. Hertz as chairman of

9184-607: The Paramount Stations Group , while KECO was renamed to Paramount Parks . Paramount Television launched Wilshire Court Productions in conjunction with USA Networks, before the latter was renamed NBCUniversal Cable , in 1989. Wilshire Court Productions (named for a side street in Los Angeles) produced television films that aired on the USA Networks, and later for other networks. USA Networks launched

9348-710: The Production Code , as the newly formed organization the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened a boycott if it was not enforced. Paramount cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful, with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful. One Fleischer series, Screen Songs , featured live-action music stars under contract to Paramount hosting sing-alongs of popular songs. The animation studio would rebound with Popeye , and in 1935, polls showed that Popeye

9512-835: The Seven Network of Australia. On January 23, 2007, KKR announced it would invest $ 700 million through a PIPE investment in Sun Microsystems . In January 2008, KKR announced it had made a $ 1.25 billion PIPE investment in Legg Mason through a convertible preferred stock offering. In addition to its successful buyout transactions, KKR was involved in the failed buyout of Harman International Industries ( NYSE :  HAR ) , an upscale audio equipment maker. On April 26, 2007, Harman announced it had entered an agreement to be acquired by KKR and Goldman Sachs . In September 2007, KKR and Goldman backed out of

9676-523: The credit rating of RJR's debt from junk to investment grade . KKR began to reduce its ownership in RJR in 1994, when its stock in RJR was used as part of the consideration for its leveraged buyout of Borden, Inc. , a producer of food and beverage products, consumer products, and industrial products. The following year, in 1995, KKR would divest itself of its final stake in RJR Nabisco when Borden sold

9840-518: The $ 8 billion buyout of Harman. By the end of the day, Harman's shares had plummeted by more than 24% upon the news. In 2007, KKR filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $ 1.25 billion by selling an ownership interest in its management company. The filing came less than two weeks after the initial public offering of rival private equity firm Blackstone Group . KKR had previously listed its KPE vehicle in 2006, but for

10004-677: The 13th slasher series, as well as joining forces with Lucasfilm and Steven Spielberg to create the Indiana Jones franchise. Other examples are the Star Trek film series and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy like Trading Places , Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels . While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial, there were occasional less commercial but more artistic and intellectual efforts like I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can , Atlantic City , Reds , Witness , Children of

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10168-506: The 1990s would be one of its least successful. In January 1998, KKR and Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst agreed to the $ 1.5 billion buyouts of Regal Entertainment Group . KKR and Hicks Muse had initially intended to combine Regal with Act III Cinemas , which KKR had acquired in 1997 for $ 706 million and United Artists Theaters , which Hicks Muse had agreed to acquire for $ 840 million in November 1997. Shortly after agreeing to

10332-482: The 2007 buyout of TXU , which is currently the largest buyout completed to date. In October 2009, KKR listed shares in the company through KKR & Co., an affiliate that holds 30% of the firm's ownership equity , with the remainder held by the firm's partners. In March 2010, KKR filed to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), with trading commencing four months later, on July 15, 2010. The firm employed 4,490 employees as of December 31, 2023. KKR

10496-479: The Australian hospitality industry with a portfolio of 200+ venues. In mid-July 2018, KKR purchased RBMedia , one of the largest independent publishers and distributors of audiobooks . On July 22, 2018, KKR & Co. announced it was taking over Taipei-based LCY Chemical Corp. in a deal valued at NT$ 47.8 billion ($ 1.56 billion US), part of a plan for more transactions involving controlling stakes in

10660-710: The Company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and during its bankruptcy process, sold several large assets. In 2012, KKR made its first retail real-estate investment in Yorktown Center in Illinois. In March 2013, KKR exited its joint venture in music company BMG Rights Management , selling its 51% stake to Bertelsmann . In January 2014, KKR acquired Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc for $ 2.4 billion from two private equity companies - Stone Point, and Hellman & Friedman . In June 2014, KKR announced it

10824-543: The FCC that Paramount controlled DuMont. Both DuMont and Paramount Television Network suffered as a result, with neither company able to acquire five O&Os. Meanwhile, CBS, ABC, and NBC had each acquired the maximum of five stations by the mid-1950s. When ABC accepted a merger offer from UPT in 1953, DuMont quickly realized that ABC now had more resources than it could possibly hope to match. It quickly reached an agreement in principle to merge with ABC. However, Paramount vetoed

10988-461: The Forstmann consortium came apart and did not provide a final bid for RJR. In November 1988, RJR set guidelines for a final bid submission at the end of the month. The management and Shearson group submitted a final bid of $ 112, a figure they felt certain would enable them to outflank any response by Kravis and KKR. KKR's final bid of $ 109, while a lower dollar figure, was ultimately accepted by

11152-551: The Golden Age of Hollywood had just ended, even the flagship Paramount Building in Times Square was sold to raise cash, as was KTLA (sold to Gene Autry in 1964 for a then-phenomenal $ 12.5 million). Their only remaining successful property at that point was Dot Records , which Paramount had acquired in 1957, and even its profits started declining by the middle of the 1960s. Founding father Adolph Zukor (born in 1873)

11316-728: The Greater China region. In July 2018, it was announced that KKR sold Gallagher Shopping Park, West Midlands in the UK to South Korean investors, Hana for £175 million. In February 2019, KKR acquired Brightsprings, and in a May 2022 letter from four United States Senators, Joe Bae and Scott Nutall were asked to explain the substandard care since their acquisition. KKR acquired the German media company Tele München Gruppe . Later that month, KKR acquired German film distributor Universum Film GmbH. In Apri 2019, KKR acquired German film production company Wiedemann & Berg Film Production with

11480-511: The Hedgehog film series. On August 25, 1983, Paramount Studios caught fire. Two or three sound stages and four outdoor sets were destroyed. When Charles Bluhdorn died unexpectedly, his successor Martin Davis dumped all of Gulf and Western's industrial, mining, and sugar-growing subsidiaries and refocused the company, renaming it Paramount Communications in 1989. With the influx of cash from

11644-677: The Madison Square Garden properties (which also included MSG Network ), a 50% stake in USA Networks (the other 50% was owned by MCA / Universal Pictures ) and Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall , Pocket Books , Allyn & Bacon , Cineamerica (a joint venture with Warner Communications ), and Canadian cinema chain Famous Players Theatres . That same year, the company launched a $ 12.2 billion hostile bid to acquire Time Inc. in an attempt to end

11808-586: The Paramount partnership and an equity investment by Larry Ellison, who was then the sixth richest person in the world, Skydance raised $ 350 million in equity and credit to co-finance its films. On October 25, 2011, Skydance tried to sign its own first production client with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci of K/O Paper Products , but the deal never materialized. On May 1, 2013, Skydance launched Skydance Television, hiring Marcy Ross as division president. In 2014, Jesse Sisgold joined Skydance as President of Business Affairs & Strategic Planning and later that year

11972-766: The Paramount-Publix theatre chain in New York City from the thirty-five-story Paramount Theatre Building on Times Square ). Balaban and Katz had developed the Wonder Theater concept, first publicized around 1918 in Chicago. The Chicago Theater was created as a very ornate theater and advertised as a "wonder theater". When Publix acquired Balaban, they embarked on a project to expand the wonder theaters, and starting building in New York City in 1927. While Balaban and Public were dominant in Chicago, Loew's

12136-463: The Regal takeover, the deal with United Artists fell apart, destroying the strategy to eliminate costs by building a larger combined company. Two years later, in 2000, Regal encountered significant financial issues and was forced to file for bankruptcy protection; the company passed to billionaire investor Philip Anschutz . At the start of the 21st century, the landscape of large leveraged buyout firms

12300-701: The Sunset and Vine lot to the new building. At present, those facilities are still part of the Paramount Pictures headquarters. Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg , an unerring eye for new talent, to run the new West Coast operations. On April 1, 1927, the company name was changed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation . In September 1927, the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation studio in Astoria (New York City)

12464-524: The UPN network, also acquiring and merging in the assets of Republic Pictures, Spelling Television and Viacom Productions, almost doubling the size of the studio's television library. The television division produced the dominant prime time show for the decade in Frasier , as well as such long running hits as NCIS and Becker and the dominant prime time magazine show Entertainment Tonight. Paramount also gained

12628-716: The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation . In January 1996, KKR would exchange its investment for a 7.5% interest in Fleet Bank . KKR completed the 1992 buyout of American Re Corporation from Aetna as well as a 47% interest in TW Corporation , later known as The Flagstar Companies and owner of Denny's in 1992. Among the other notable investments KKR completed in the early 1990s included World Color Press (1993–95), RELTEC Corporation (1995) and Bruno's (1995). By

12792-726: The West Coast. The Chicago station got a commercial license as WBKB in 1943, but was sold to UPT along with Balaban & Katz in 1948 and was eventually resold to CBS as WBBM-TV . In 1938, Paramount bought a stake in television manufacturer DuMont Laboratories . Through this stake, it became a minority owner of the DuMont Television Network . Paramount also launched its own network, Paramount Television Network , in 1948 through its television unit, Television Productions, Inc. Paramount management planned to acquire additional owned-and-operated stations ("O&Os");

12956-615: The artistic acclaim the Fleischer brothers achieved under their management. In 1940, Paramount agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" (the practice of collecting up-front money for films not yet in production) would end. Immediately, Paramount cut back on production, from 71 films to a more modest 19 annually in the war years. Still, with more new stars like Bob Hope , Alan Ladd , Veronica Lake , Paulette Goddard , and Betty Hutton , and with war-time attendance at astronomical numbers, Paramount and

13120-442: The board of directors of RJR Nabisco. KKR's offer was guaranteed, whereas the management offer lacked a "reset", meaning that the final share price might have been lower than their stated $ 112 per share. Additionally, many in RJR's board of directors had grown concerned at recent disclosures of Ross Johnson's unprecedented golden parachute deal. Time magazine featured Johnson on the cover of their December 1988 issue along with

13284-491: The buyout. KKR collected a $ 75 million fee in the RJR takeover. At $ 31.1 billion of а transaction value (including assumed debt), RJR Nabisco was, at the time, by far the largest leveraged buyout in history. The buyout of RJR Nabisco was completed in April 1989 and KKR would spend the early 1990s repaying the RJR's enormous debt load through a series of asset sales and restructuring transactions. KKR did not complete

13448-517: The companies were separate, the FCC ruled that Paramount's partial ownership of DuMont meant that DuMont and Paramount were in theory branches of the same company. Since DuMont owned three television stations and Paramount owned two, the federal agency ruled neither network could acquire additional television stations. The FCC requested that Paramount relinquish its stake in DuMont, but Paramount refused. According to television historian William Boddy, "Paramount's checkered antitrust history" helped convince

13612-597: The company applied to the FCC for additional stations in San Francisco, Detroit, and Boston. The FCC, however, denied Paramount's applications. A few years earlier, the federal regulator had placed a five-station cap on all television networks: no network was allowed to own more than five VHF television stations. Paramount was hampered by its minority stake in the DuMont Television Network. Although both DuMont and Paramount executives stated that

13776-451: The company in 1998, 2000 and 2001 to support acquisition activity. In 2005, Primedia redeemed KKR's preferred stock in the company but KKR was estimated to have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on its common stock holdings as the price of the company's stock collapsed. In 1991, KKR partnered with Fleet/Norstar Financial Group in the 1991 acquisition of the Bank of New England , from

13940-580: The company's annual D23 Expo in person and through broadcasts on multiple streaming platforms. Along with the announcement, Disney said that the panel would also debut a "sneak peek" at Skydance New Media's Marvel title, which is described as being an "ensemble game". During the showcase on September 9, 2022, the Marvel project confirmed prior reports that it would be set during World War II . Also Captain America and Azzuri / Black Panther will be featured as

14104-543: The company's subsidiaries. Its sugar plantations in Florida and the Dominican Republic were sold in 1985; the consumer and industrial products branch was sold off that same year. In 1989, Davis renamed the company Paramount Communications Incorporated after its primary asset, Paramount Pictures. In addition to the Paramount film, television, home video, and music publishing divisions, the company continued to own

14268-456: The company. During this time period, Paramount Pictures went under the guidance of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing , president. During their administration over Paramount, the studio had an extremely successful period of films with two of Paramount's ten highest-grossing films being produced during this period. The most successful of these films, Titanic , co-produced with 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment , became

14432-518: The company. The company remained under the control of trustees for more than a year in order to restructure the debt and pursue a reorganization plan. On December 3, 1934, the reorganization plan was formally proposed. After prolonged hearings in court, final confirmation was obtained on April 25, 1935, when Federal Judge Alfred C. Coxe Jr. approved the reorganization of the Paramount-Publix Corporation under Section 77-B of

14596-729: The company. The transaction is expected to close in spring 2025. Skydance Productions was formed in 2006 by David Ellison , son of Larry Ellison , co-founder and then-CEO of the Oracle Corporation . The firm's first film was Flyboys in 2006; it starred Ellison and was co-financed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . In the fall of 2009, Skydance and Paramount Pictures signed a five-year co-financing, production and distribution agreement, with Paramount holding an additional option of distribution. Before August 2010, Skydance hired Dana Goldberg, formerly of Village Roadshow Pictures , to oversee development and production. In August 2010, with

14760-472: The corporate finance department for Bear Stearns in the 1960s and 1970s, Jerome Kohlberg , and later Henry Kravis and George Roberts , completed a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments. They targeted family-owned businesses, many of which had been founded in the years following World War II , that were facing succession issues. Many of these companies lacked a viable exit for their founders because they were too small to be taken public and

14924-477: The corporation from a bloated conglomerate consisting of subsidiaries from unrelated industries to a more focused entertainment and publishing company. The idea was to aid financial markets in measuring the company's success, which, in turn, would help place better value on its shares. Though its Paramount division did very well in recent years, Gulf and Western's success as a whole was translating poorly with investors. This process eventually led Davis to divest many of

15088-643: The country (as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation were). Paramount Pictures was not connected to either Paramount Records (1910s–1935) or ABC-Paramount Records (1955–66) until it purchased the rights to use the name (but not the latter's catalog) in the late 1960s. The Paramount name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re-issues from the Dot Records catalog which Paramount had acquired in 1957. By 1970, Dot had become an all-country label and in 1974, Paramount sold all of its record holdings to ABC Records , which in turn

15252-520: The country in 1986. Worldwide Media Sales, a division of the New York-based Worldwide Media Group had been placed in charge of the undertaking. That year, Paramount Pictures decided to consolidate its distribution operations, closing a number of branch offices that were designed for the studio and relocating staff and major activities in an effort to cut costs and provide for a more efficient centralization; this decision

15416-484: The early 1990s, the absence of an active high yield market prompted KKR to change its tactics, avoiding large leveraged buyouts in favor of industry consolidations through what was described as leveraged buildups or rollups . One of KKR's largest investments in the 1990s was the leveraged buildup of Primedia in partnership with former executives of Macmillan Publishing , which KKR had failed to acquire in 1988. KKR created Primedia's predecessor, K-III Communications ,

15580-536: The end of 2004 and in 2005, major buyouts were once again becoming common and market observers were stunned by the leverage levels and financing terms obtained by financial sponsors in their buyouts. In 2005, KKR was one of seven private equity firms involved in the buyout of SunGard in a transaction valued at $ 11.3 billion. KKR's partners in the acquisition were Silver Lake Partners , Bain Capital , Goldman Sachs Capital Partners , Blackstone Group , Providence Equity Partners , and TPG Capital . This represented

15744-570: The film community. Since then, former next-door neighbor RKO closed up shop in 1957 (Paramount ultimately absorbed their former lot); Warner Bros. (whose old Sunset Boulevard studio was sold to Paramount in 1949 as a home for KTLA ) moved to Burbank in 1930; Columbia joined Warners in Burbank in 1973 then moved again to Culver City in 1989; and the Pickford-Fairbanks-Goldwyn-United Artists lot, after

15908-511: The finance committee in order to assist vice-president and treasurer Ralph A. Kohn. However, on January 6, 1933, Hertz resigned from his position when it become evident that his measures to lift the company had failed. The over-expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases created a $ 21 million debt which led the company into receivership on January 26, 1933, and later filing bankruptcy on March 14, 1933. On April 17, 1933, bankruptcy trustees were appointed and Zukor lost control of

16072-513: The firm invested $ 90 million in lighting and electrics firm Savant Systems . Also in 2014, KKR acquired commercial landscaping company ValleyCrest from Michael Dell 's investment firm MSD Capital , and combined it with landscape company Brickman, which it had owned since 2013, to form BrightView. In January 2015, KKR confirmed its purchase of the British rail ticket website thetrainline.com , previously owned by Exponent. The purchase sum

16236-549: The firm was responsible for the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco . RJR Nabisco was the largest buyout in history at that time, at $ 25 billion, and remained the largest buyout for the next 17 years. The deal was chronicled in Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco , and later made into a television movie starring James Garner . In 1988, F. Ross Johnson was the president and CEO of RJR Nabisco ,

16400-516: The firm's use of hostile tactics in the buyout of RJR. KKR proposed to provide a joint offer with Johnson and Shearson Lehman but was rebuffed and Johnson attempted to stonewall KKR's access to financial information from RJR. Rival private equity firm Forstmann Little & Co. was invited into the process by Shearson Lehman but attempted to provide a bid for RJR with a consortium of Goldman Sachs Capital Partners , Procter & Gamble , Ralston Purina and Castle & Cooke . Ultimately,

16564-475: The first time, KKR would offer investors an ownership interest in the management company itself. The onset of the credit crunch and the shutdown of the IPO market dampened the prospects of obtaining a valuation attractive to KKR. The flotation was repeatedly postponed and called off by the end of August. The following year, in July 2008, KKR announced a new plan to list its shares. The plan called for KKR to complete

16728-470: The following month, it acquired PharMerica for $ 1.4 billion including debt, Pepper Group for $ 518 million, Covenant Surgical Partners, and Envision Healthcare Corporation's ambulance business ( American Medical Response, Inc. (AMR) ) for $ 2.4 billion. On July 6, 2017, KKR announced it would merge Northern California Mi Pueblo and Ontario-based Cardenas Market. On September 18, 2017, Toys "R" Us, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , stating

16892-487: The following: Other non-buyout investments completed by KKR during this period included Legg Mason , Sun Microsystems , Tarkett, Longview Power Plant , and Seven Network . In October 2006, KKR acquired a 50% stake in Tarkett, a France-based distributor of flooring products, in a deal valued at about €1.4 billion ($ 1.8 billion). On November 20, 2006, KKR announced it would form a A$ 4 billion partnership with

17056-665: The founders were reluctant to sell out to competitors. In 1964, Lewis Cullman acquired and then sold Orkin Exterminating Company in what some call the first significant leveraged buyout transaction. In the following years the three Bear Stearns bankers completed a series of buyouts including Stern Metals (1965), Incom (a division of Rockwood International, 1971), Cobblers Industries (1971), and Boren Clay (1973), as well as Thompson Wire, Eagle Motors and Barrows through their investment in Stern Metals. Despite

17220-420: The headline, "A Game of Greed: This man could pocket $ 100 million from the largest corporate takeover in history. Has the buyout craze gone too far?". KKR's offer was welcomed by the board, and, to some observers, it appeared that their elevation of the reset issue as a deal-breaker in KKR's favor was little more than an excuse to reject Johnson's higher bid of $ 112 per share. Johnson received $ 53 million from

17384-626: The highest-grossing film up to that time, grossing over $ 1.8 billion worldwide. Also during this time, three Paramount Pictures films won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Titanic , Braveheart , and Forrest Gump . Paramount's most important property, however, was Star Trek . Studio executives had begun to call it "the franchise" in the 1980s due to its reliable revenue, and other studios envied its "untouchable and unduplicatable" success. By 1998, Star Trek television shows, movies, books, videotapes, and licensing provided so much of

17548-581: The idea of the buyout to Johnson, presented a new bid for $ 20.3 billion ($ 90 per share) financed with an aggressive debt package. KKR had the support of equity co-investments from pension funds and other institutional investors , including Coca-Cola , Georgia-Pacific and United Technologies corporate pension funds, as well as endowments from MIT , Harvard and the New York State Common Retirement Fund . However, KKR faced criticism from existing investors over

17712-690: The intellectual property rights to the films produced under the agreement, and would still be allowed to work with other distributors. On October 13, 2022, Skydance completed a $ 400 million strategic investment round which was led by KKR , a first-time investor, and joined by the Ellison family who are majority shareholders. By April 13, 2023, Skydance Media backed a new venture from country star Tim McGraw based in Nashville called "Down Home"; with two scripted series in development, along with plans on features and animation to follow. On July 7, Skydance brought

17876-515: The job for eight years, restoring Paramount's reputation for commercial success with The Odd Couple , Rosemary's Baby , Love Story , The Godfather , Chinatown , and 3 Days of the Condor . Gulf and Western also bought the neighboring Desilu Productions television studio (once the lot of RKO Pictures ) from Lucille Ball in 1967. Using some of Desilu's established shows such as Star Trek , Mission: Impossible , and Mannix as

18040-465: The kind that once made Paramount the industry leader. Around the end of 1981, Paramount Pictures took over fellow Gulf and Western subsidiary Sega from the company's manufacturing division in an effort to get into the video game business. Paramount would go on to sell Sega following the Video Game Crash of 1983 , and the two companies would later work together on the live action/CGI Sonic

18204-591: The largest leveraged buyout completed since the takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988. SunGard was the largest buyout of a technology company until the Blackstone -led buyout of Freescale Semiconductor . The SunGard transaction was notable given the number of firms involved in the transaction, the largest club deal completed to that point. The involvement of seven firms in the consortium was criticized by investors in private equity who considered cross-holdings among firms to be generally unattractive. In 2006, KKR raised

18368-668: The late 1920s and the early 1930s, talkies brought in a range of powerful draws: Richard Arlen , Nancy Carroll , Maurice Chevalier , Gary Cooper , Marlene Dietrich , Charles Ruggles , Ruth Chatterton , William Powell , Mae West , Sylvia Sidney , Bing Crosby , Claudette Colbert , the Marx Brothers , W.C. Fields , Fredric March , Jack Oakie , Jeanette MacDonald (whose first two films were shot at Paramount's Astoria, New York , studio), Carole Lombard , George Raft , Miriam Hopkins , Cary Grant and Stuart Erwin , among them. In this period Paramount can truly be described as

18532-463: The latter company's television arm W&B Television remained a separate entity. Two months later in July 2019, KKR acquired the Canadian software company Corel . In August 2019, KKR acquired Arnott's , the Australian snack unit of Campbell Soup Company , for $ 2.2 billion. Later that month, KKR became the biggest shareholder of German media group Axel Springer , paying $ 3.2 billion for

18696-463: The library and publishing industry; the acquisition was finalized in June 2020. In May 2020, KKR announced that it will be investing $ 750 million in cosmetics producer Coty . A separate plan was revealed in which several divisions of Coty are set to be spun out into a new company. According to the deal, KKR will own 60%, while Coty 40% of the new business. The same month, it was announced that KKR

18860-470: The loss of the theater chain, Paramount Pictures went into a decline, cutting studio-backed production, releasing its contract players, and making production deals with independents. By the mid-1950s, all the great names were gone; only Cecil B. DeMille , associated with Paramount since 1913, kept making pictures in the grand old style. Despite Paramount's losses, DeMille would, however, give the studio some relief and create his most successful film at Paramount,

19024-616: The main characters in the ensemble, alongside Gabriel Jones of the Howling Commandos unit and Nanali, leader of the Wakandan Spy Network, while the Hydra organization would serve as the main villains. In March 2024, during the showcase of State of Unreal, the project is revealed to be titled Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra with the game being powered by Unreal Engine 5 and will be released on 2025. Skydance Sports

19188-463: The mid-1990s, the debt markets were improving and KKR had moved on from the RJR Nabisco buyout. In 1996, KKR was able to complete the bulk of fundraising for what was then a record $ 6 billion private equity fund, the KKR 1996 Fund. However, KKR was still burdened by the performance of the RJR investment and repeated obituaries in the media. KKR was required by its investors to reduce the fees it charged and to calculate its carried interest based on

19352-616: The middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time (leading to the slogan "Famous Players in Famous Plays"). By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success. Its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth , which starred Sarah Bernhardt . That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky , opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, later known as Samuel Goldwyn . The Lasky company hired as their first employee

19516-513: The move would give it flexibility to deal with $ 5 billion in long-term debt, borrow $ 2 billion so it would be able to pay suppliers for the upcoming holiday season and invest in improving current operations. During 2017, KKR purchased an 80 percent stake in Dixon Hospitality Group for A$ 190 million in 2017 which turned into the company Australian Venue Co. (AVC). AVC is a food and beverage-focused operator in

19680-660: The new United Paramount Theaters on December 31, 1949. Leonard Goldenson , who had headed the chain since 1938, remained as the new company's president. The Balaban and Katz theatre division was spun off with UPT; its trademark eventually became the property of the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation. The foundation later acquired ownership of the Famous Players trademark. Cash-rich and controlling prime downtown real estate, Goldenson began looking for investments. Barred from film-making by prior antitrust rulings, he acquired

19844-565: The offer due to antitrust concerns. For all intents and purposes, this was the end of DuMont, though it lingered on until 1956. In 1951, Paramount bought a stake in International Telemeter , an experimental pay TV service which operated with a coin inserted into a box. The service began operating in Palm Springs, California on November 27, 1953, but due to pressure from the FCC, the service ended on May 15, 1954. With

20008-465: The original leveraged buyout of RJR had been only $ 1.5 billion. In mid-December 1990, RJR announced an exchange offer that would swap debt in RJR for a new public stock in the company, effectively an unusual means of taking RJR public again and simultaneously reducing debt on the company. RJR issued additional stock to the public in March 1991 to reduce debt further, resulting in an upgrade of

20172-740: The other integrated studio-theatre combines made more money than ever. At this, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department decided to reopen their case against the five integrated studios. Paramount also had a monopoly over Detroit movie theaters through subsidiary company United Detroit Theaters. This led to the Supreme Court decision United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948) holding that movie studios could not also own movie theater chains. This decision broke up Adolph Zukor's creation, with

20336-634: The ownership rights to the Rysher library, after Viacom acquired the rights from Cox Enterprises . Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc. , also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. , is an American global investment company . As of December 31, 2023 , the firm had completed private equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $ 710 billion of total enterprise value. Its assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $ 553 billion and $ 446 billion, respectively. KKR

20500-423: The previous year. It soon ended in a spectacular failure, breakup of the half-a-century-old company and loss of thousands of jobs, even though creditors earned a profit. The firm's acquisitions during the 1980s buyout boom include: At age 61, Kohlberg resigned in 1987 (he later founded his own private equity firm, Kohlberg & Co. ), and Henry Kravis succeeded him as senior partner. Under Kravis and Roberts,

20664-558: The production side, Hiram Abrams in charge of distribution, and Zukor making great plans. With only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players–Lasky and its "Paramount Pictures" soon dominated the business. The fusion was finalized on November 7, 1916. Because Zukor believed in stars, he signed and developed many of the leading early stars, including Mary Pickford , Marguerite Clark , Pauline Frederick , Douglas Fairbanks , Gloria Swanson , Rudolph Valentino , and Wallace Reid . With so many important players, Paramount

20828-461: The sale of Gulf and Western's industrial properties in the mid-1980s, Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment 's theme park operations, renaming them Paramount Parks . These parks included Paramount's Great America , Paramount Canada's Wonderland , Paramount's Carowinds , Paramount's Kings Dominion , and Paramount's Kings Island . In May 1985, Paramount decided to start its own talent department, an attempt to form

20992-693: The sale of Gulf and Western's non-entertainment properties to take over the TVX Broadcast Group chain of television stations (which at that point consisted mainly of large-market stations which TVX had bought from Taft Broadcasting , plus two mid-market stations which TVX owned prior to the Taft purchase), and the KECO Entertainment chain of theme parks from Taft successor Great American Broadcasting. Both of these companies had their names changed to reflect new ownership: TVX became known as

21156-553: The sound of KKR. The new KKR completed its first buyout, of manufacturer A.J. Industries, in 1976. KKR raised capital from a small group of investors including the Hillman Company and First Chicago Bank . By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA regulations, the nascent KKR was successful in raising its first institutional fund with over $ 30 million of investor commitments. In 1981, KKR expanded its investor base after

21320-447: The struggling ABC television network in February 1953, leading it first to financial health, and eventually, in the mid-1970s, to first place in the national Nielsen ratings, before selling out to Capital Cities in 1985 (Capital Cities would eventually sell out, in turn, to The Walt Disney Company in 1996). United Paramount Theaters was renamed ABC Theaters in 1965 and was sold to businessman Henry Plitt in 1977. The movie theater chain

21484-480: The studio's library includes many individual films such as The Godfather and  Titanic , both of which became the  highest-grossing films of all time  during their initial releases. Paramount Pictures is a member of the  Motion Picture Association (MPA). Paramount is the sixth oldest surviving film studio in the world; after Gaumont Film Company (1895), Pathé (1896), Titanus (1904), Nordisk Film (1906), and Universal Pictures (1912). It

21648-467: The studio's profit that "it is not possible to spend any reasonable amount of time at Paramount and not be aware of [its] presence"; filming for Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine required up to nine of the largest of the studio's 36 sound stages . In 1995, Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries ' United Television launched United Paramount Network (UPN) with Star Trek: Voyager as its flagship series, fulfilling Barry Diller's plan for

21812-501: The studio, including a US remake of a South Korea series called Hotel del Luna . By August 2019, writer Olivia Purnell had signed an overall deal with Skydance Television writing projects for the studio. In May 2020, Nick Santora also got an overall deal with Skydance Television with a series starting Arnold Schwarzenegger called FUBAR , soon to be released on Netflix. In May 2020 Skydance Television named Drew Brown as head of production. In December 2020, Skydance Television signed

21976-512: The studios' West Coast productions. On January 5, 1926, Lasky reached an agreement to buy the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility owned by United Pictures and located at 5451 Marathon Street, for $ 1.0   million (equivalent to $ 13.8   million in 2023). On March 29, the company began an eight-month building program to renovate the existing facilities and erect new ones. On May 8, Lasky finally moved operations from

22140-500: The territory of the Wet'suwet'en Nation , which opposes the project. Enforcement of an injunction to build through the Wet'suwet'en territory has sparked widespread protests across Canada . In the final days of 2019, KKR announced it would acquire OverDrive, Inc. , a major distributor of eBooks to libraries. The potential for consolidation with KKR subsidiary RBMedia was quickly noted in

22304-410: The theater chain being split into a new company, United Paramount Theaters , and effectively brought an end to the classic Hollywood studio system . With the separation of production and exhibition forced by the U.S. Supreme Court, Paramount Pictures Inc. was split in two. Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to be the production distribution company, with the 1,500-screen theater chain handed to

22468-428: The three companies into one. The new company Lasky and Zukor founded on June 28, Famous Players–Lasky Corporation , although it continued to use the name "Paramount," as well. As a result, it became the largest film company at the time with a value of US$ 12.5   million (equivalent to $ 241.8   million in 2023). The corporation was able to grow quickly, with Lasky and his partners Goldwyn and DeMille running

22632-599: The total profit of the fund (i.e., offsetting losses from failed deals against the profits from successful deals). KKR's activity level would accelerate over the second half of the 1990s making a series of notable investments including Spalding Holdings Corporation and Evenflo (1996), Newsquest (1996), KinderCare Learning Centers (1997), Amphenol Corporation (1997), Randalls Food Markets (1997), The Boyds Collection (1998), MedCath Corporation (1998), Willis Group Holdings (1998), Smiths Group (1999), and Wincor Nixdorf (1999). KKR's largest investment of

22796-406: The world, while its fortuitous earlier acquisition of the Star Trek property, which had grown into a cult favorite , enabled Paramount to have a long running science fiction film and television franchise to compete with the outstanding popular success of Star Wars . Diller's television background led him to propose one of his longest-standing ideas to the board: Paramount Television Service ,

22960-598: Was a more interested listener. However, the television division would be playing catch-up for over a decade after Diller's departure in 1984 before launching its own television network – UPN – in 1995. Lasting eleven years before being merged with The WB network to become The CW in 2006, UPN would feature many of the shows it originally produced for other networks, and would take numerous gambles on series such as Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise that would have otherwise either gone direct-to-cable or become first-run syndication to independent stations across

23124-433: Was able to introduce " block booking ", which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than twenty years. By the mid-1920s, the old Lasky-DeMille barn property was not big enough to handle all of

23288-526: Was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as "talkies", and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris . Richard A. Whiting and Leo Robin composed the score for the film; Maurice Chevalier starred and sang the most famous song from the film, " Louise ". The driving force behind Paramount's rise was Zukor. He built a chain of nearly 2,000 screens, ran two production studios (in Astoria, New York , now

23452-511: Was announced that Lucasfilm Games would collaborate making a game based in the Star Wars universe. There has been speculation that the game will be a revival of Project Ragtag which was also led by Henning. In August 2022, Marvel's parent corporation The Walt Disney Company announced their intentions to showcase a slate of video games based on their IP at the joint Disney & Marvel Games Showcase . It would happen in conjunction with

23616-497: Was announced that Octavia Spencer 's production company, Orit Entertainment, has entered a multiyear first-look deal for scripted projects for Skydance Television. On March 21, 2023, James Patterson has signed an exclusive first-look pact with Skydance Television to adapt his works such as the upcoming series Cross along with other projects in development like Women's Murder Club and the upcoming book Jane Smith . In May 2024, Skydance Television doubles on their series output and signed

23780-585: Was changing. Several large and storied firms, including Hicks Muse Tate & Furst and Forstmann Little & Company were dragged down by heavy losses in the bursting of the telecom bubble . Although KKR's track record since RJR Nabisco was mixed, losses on such investments as Regal Entertainment Group , Spalding , Flagstar and RentPath (previously K-III Communications) were offset by successes in Willis Group, Wise Foods, Inc. , Wincor Nixdorf and MTU Aero Engines , among others. Additionally, KKR

23944-399: Was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. The most commerciay successful film franchises from Paramount Pictures include  Transformers , Mission: Impossible and Star Trek . Additionally,

24108-429: Was even more popular than Mickey Mouse . After an unsuccessful expansion into feature films, as well as the fact that Max and Dave Fleischer were no longer speaking to one another, Fleischer Studios was acquired by Paramount, which renamed the operation Famous Studios . That incarnation of the animation studio continued cartoon production until 1967, but has been historically dismissed as having largely failed to maintain

24272-418: Was founded in 1976 by Jerome Kohlberg Jr. , and cousins Henry Kravis and George R. Roberts , all of whom had previously worked together at Bear Stearns , where they completed some of the earliest leveraged buyout transactions. Since its founding, KKR has completed a number of transactions, including the 1989 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco , which was the largest buyout in history to that point, as well as

24436-579: Was hired as EVP Interactive help to set and execute overall strategy for Skydance Interactive, and oversee development, partnerships, and new business opportunities. On July 18, 2017, its first VR game, Archangel was launched. The game recently expanded into an online multiplayer upgrade, Archangel: Hellfire . Two days later, Skydance Interactive revealed their second original game called PWND , an multiplayer free to play game released on April 6, 2018, where players use Pwns to win. In 2018, Skydance Interactive partnered with Skybound Entertainment to develop

24600-459: Was launched on WGN America ; it received critical acclaim throughout its run, but failed to secure adequate ratings, resulting in the series being canceled for 2 seasons in 2015. Later in April 2017, director Sam Raimi signed his first look deal at Skydance Television with his television producing partner Debbie Liebling . By September 2017, a multi-year overall agreement was signed by producers Patrick Massett and John Zinman after they joined

24764-585: Was made in response to a change in distribution practices that had occurred among the various major studios. In August 1987, Paramount Overseas Productions declared that the subsidiary would be in service not just for the upcoming film Experts , which was shot on a budget of $ 12 million in Canada , but also for other films filmed there worldwide, including the United Kingdom and Canada . In 1993, Sumner Redstone 's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made

24928-644: Was not disclosed. On October 12, 2015, KKR announced that it had entered into definitive agreement with Allianz Capital Partners to acquire their majority stake in Selecta Group, a European vending services operator. In 2016, KKR purchased two Hispanic grocery chains, Northern California Mi Pueblo and Ontario, California –based Cardenas. In February 2016, KKR invested $ 75 million in commercial real estate lender A10 Capital. On September 1, 2016, KKR announced that it had acquired Epicor Software Corporation , an American software company. In October 2016, it

25092-555: Was one of the few firms that were able to complete large leveraged buyout transactions in the years immediately following the collapse of the Internet bubble, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Bell Canada Yellow Pages . KKR was able to realize its investment in Shoppers Drug Mart through a 2002 IPO and subsequent public stock offerings. The directories business would be taken public in 2004 as Yellow Pages Income Fund ,

25256-409: Was promoted from senior vice president to president of Skydance Television. In November 2022, Bost stepped down and launched his own company; Netflix 's Matt Thunell took his place. In May 2014, Jake Rose joined Skydance Television as EVP Production and in March 2018, Carol Turner joined Skydance replacing Rose and overseeing production on site at the studio. By July 2014 its first show, Manhattan ,

25420-510: Was re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and when the company was under Balaban's leadership, the studio was successfully relaunched. As always, Paramount films continued to emphasize stars; in the 1920s there were Gloria Swanson , Wallace Reid , Rudolph Valentino , Florence Vidor , Thomas Meighan , Pola Negri , Bebe Daniels , Antonio Moreno , Richard Dix , Esther Ralston , Emil Jannings , George Bancroft , Betty Compson , Clara Bow , Adolphe Menjou , and Charles Buddy Rogers . By

25584-520: Was released. On May 8, 1914, Paramount Pictures Corporation (previously known as Progressive Pictures) was founded by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson , who had bought and merged five smaller firms. On May 15, 1914, Hodkinson signed a five-year contract with the Famous Players Film Company, the Lasky Company and Bosworth, Inc. to distribute their films. Actor, director and producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of

25748-483: Was renamed Plitt Theaters. In 1985, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Plitt. In later years, Paramount's TV division would develop a strong relationship with ABC, providing many hit series to the network. Paramount Pictures had been an early backer of television, launching experimental stations in 1939 in Los Angeles and Chicago. The Los Angeles station eventually became KTLA , the first commercial station on

25912-614: Was reported that KKR invested $ 250 million in OVH to be used for further international expansion. This funding round valued OVH at over $ 1 billion, making it a unicorn . In December 2016, the Lonza Group announced it would acquire Capsugel for $ 5.5 billion from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. In February 2017, KKR was reported to be trying to take over the international market research company ARI GfK SE . In July 2017, KKR acquired WebMD Health Corp for $ 2.8 billion and,

26076-503: Was sold to MCA (now Universal Music Group ) in 1979. Paramount's successful run of pictures extended into the 1980s and 1990s, generating hits like Airplane! , American Gigolo , Ordinary People , An Officer and a Gentleman , Flashdance , Terms of Endearment , Footloose , Pretty in Pink , Top Gun , Crocodile Dundee , Fatal Attraction , Ghost , the Friday

26240-460: Was still chairman emeritus; he referred to chairman Barney Balaban (born 1888) as "the boy". Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times, and in 1966, a sinking Paramount was sold to Charles Bluhdorn 's industrial conglomerate, Gulf and Western Industries . Bluhdorn immediately put his stamp on the studio, installing a virtually unknown producer named Robert Evans as head of production. Despite some rough times, Evans held

26404-660: Was taking a one-third stake in Spanish energy business Acciona Energy , at a cost of €417 million ($ 567 million). The international renewable energy generation business operates renewable assets, largely wind farms , across 14 countries including the United States , Italy and South Africa . In August 2014, KKR announced it was investing $ 400 million to acquire Fujian Sunner Development, China's largest chicken farmer, which breeds, processes and supplies frozen and fresh chickens to consumers and corporate clients, such as KFC and McDonald's, across China. In September 2014,

26568-502: Was temporarily closed with the objective of equipping it with the technology for the production of sound films . In the same year, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps , animated cartoons produced by Max and Dave Fleischer 's Fleischer Studios in New York City. The Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney . The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957. Paramount

26732-454: Was the big player in New York City, and did not want the Publix theaters to overshadow theirs. The two companies brokered a non-competition deal for New York City and Chicago, and Loew's took over the New York City area projects, developing five wonder theaters . Publix continued Balaban's wonder theater development in its home area. On April 24, 1930, Paramount-Famous Lasky Corporation became

26896-521: Was upped to Chief Operating Officer. Again he was promoted in 2017 to President & COO. In March 2014, Don Granger joined the company as the EVP of Feature Productions, a newly created position; he reports to Dana Goldberg who is the company's chief creative officer. In March 2015, Anne Globe joined the company as chief marketing officer. Later in the same year, Skydance raised $ 700 million in new financing. The refinancing included $ 200 million in equity from

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