Paramount, a Skydance Corporation, will now be Paramount, an LA-based operation.
After Paramount and Skydance officially closed their $8.4 billion deal on Thursday, company executives were in New York for a press conference. One piece of information that emerged from the 90-minute gathering was the fact that Paramount, whose corporate predecessors, Paramount Global, Viacom and CBS Corp., were all strongly identified with New York, will now be headquartered in L.A.
Plans call for the company to be officially based on the fabled Melrose Lot, executives said, though the press conference came just hours after the deal closed, meaning many decisions are still in the formative stages. As it sets up shop in that century-old Hollywood remake, Paramount will also keep Skydance Media’s Santa Monica base. Hundreds of employees work at the Olympic Boulevard site in departments focused on sports, animation and other areas.
Where companies are officially headquartered is not as important as it was before the digital age. Thanks to technology, shareholder meetings and other corporate functions can be handled from multiple remote offices, of which the recently merged Paramount has several. However, the main corporate address of a company can be specific. Just ask the people in Battle Creek, MI about breakfast cereal.
Paramount is poised to become the largest LA-based media company outside of Disney. Skydance’s brass was already largely based in LA, so the move makes sense in that way. Advertising sales, investor relations, and many other corporate functions will still be in New York.
The company’s former Times Square digs, which have seen several renovation projects over the years, could be in for a makeover. The building at 1515 Broadway (the site of MTV’s Total Demand Live as well as the late corporate founder Sumner Redstone’s home away from home during various stages of his empire-building) could soon find itself in the media spotlight. CBS had already vacated “Black Rock,” its longtime offices at West 52nd Street and Avenue of the Americas, when the previous regime decided to sell the building. A Caesars Palace casino is proposed at 1515 Broadway, which might be a little too on-the-nose for employees who were betting on the fate of movies, TV, and streaming prospects.
Speculation has it that the CBS news production facilities along West 57th Street on Manhattan’s far west side could be a nexus for the newly merged Paramount. With the news and sports talent there, and with the corporate brass mostly based in LA, that’s ultimately a logical fit. It’s hard to find many neighborhoods in New York City that need a makeover, but certain pockets of 57th Street around 10th Avenue would fit that description. City officials might want to hear Paramount’s thoughts on its presence in the neighborhood, which is prominent north of Hudson Yards but also south of the Upper West Side.
