Shari Redstone is “everything.”
About a year ago, Redstone meant Israeli media entrepreneur Emilio Schenker when he was searching for a partner for the October 7 documentary, Well Dance Again. This week, former Paramount Global Chairman announced that she will invest in his SIPUR production banner and join the chairmanship of its board.
In the latest episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast, Redstone explains why he was attracted to the opportunity at Sipur.
“The more I learned about (Schenker), the more I was excited about this opportunity to meet his team and understand what he was doing,” Redstone says. “To be honest, I wasn’t trying to join another business. I was really looking to focus on my foundation and the work I’m doing. But the reality is that there’s real consistency between the work he does in my foundation. They create great content.
Asked about the extent of her involvement in managing the company, Redstone said, “I’m a huge number of people.”
Redstone is well aware of how difficult the social and business environment is for Israel, given the devastation in Gaza unfolded by Israeli controversial Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. The Hamasterolist attack on October 7, 2023 and the resulting humanitarian crisis sparked war, which is why more needs to be done to deal with the centuries-old hatred that drives the current conflict.
“The reason I think it’s so important to be in Israel is because, frankly, they do a great job because there are so many incredible creative talents in Israel and, frankly, in other international markets, both on-screen and off-screen. “Because of some of the challenges that exist in Israel, we’re working even harder to find the right people to work with. I’m very excited about what we can bring to the world of entertainment.”
Regarding geopolitical forces mitigating Israel and the Middle East, Redstone considers the need for the media to work in partnership with philanthropy and civic efforts to encourage peace and inclusion.
“We see boycotts (against Israeli companies), as we’ve seen on university campuses and everywhere else. But we’re very excited to work with SIPUR to address exactly these issues and create content that we might need to fight for distribution. “We’ve always said we have a responsibility and obligation to use our platform to make a difference, and we’ll work with Sipur to help them achieve success as an opportunity. We don’t want to double the challenges.
Redstone is also working on her long-term venture fund, Advancit Capital, and its focus.
“Our latest funds are around crypto and AI. To be honest, if you want to participate in crypto and AI, you need to do it full-time. You can’t dip your feet,” she says. “So I’m very involved in some of the portfolio companies that still exist. But my son-in-law (Jason Osteimer) is really leading the way in a lot of what we’re doing in the future.”
Also in today’s episode, Variety’s business editor Todd Spangler and TV news editor Joe Otterson discuss the state of the play at Paramount, a shop where Redstone just sold to Skydance Media’s David Ellison and Redbird Capital. Otterson describes a recent report on mood at CBS after the network was discovered in crossfire in the Paramount-Skydance merger process.
Rumors of Paramount’s interest in Warner Bros Discovery have spread for some time, but the decision to move faster later surprised the industry. WBD is in the process of selling most of its linear cable channels, with HBO and Warner Bros. being put together into a much smaller company. But Ellison is poised to make an offer to the entire company right away.
“Street interprets this because we want to preempt the bidding war on the studio side of HBO and streaming assets and business. Now they reach the front of other potential bidders who want to be chosen in the words of one analyst, the most attractive assets. “Warner Bros has enormous debt. Therefore, standalone Warner Bros is less highly exploited and becomes a more attractive acquisition target. That means a bidding process that includes Netflix. Apple may be included.
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