👉 Background: Paramount is the film and TV production company that’s been around for almost as long as Hollywood has. It has produced films like Titanic, The Godfather and the Shrek series. On top of that, Paramount is also the owner of Network 10.

👉 What happened: Earlier this year, Paramount was put up for sale with many companies circling - from Warner Bros to Comcast and even Warren Buffett. Now, after much to-ing and fro-ing, Paramount has announced that it will merge with independent film studio Skydance in a deal that will create a $28 billion USD company.

👉 What else: The merged company will be called "New Skydance" for now. It seems like despite many false starts, they finally managed to get the deal complete by sweetening the deal for Paramount’s controlling owners.

What's the key learning?

💡When it comes to company shares, not all shares are created equal. In fact, shares are often divided into multiple classes, with different rights.

💡When certain shareholders, like founders or executives are given more voting power than ordinary shareholders, it gives them more control over the company. In Paramount’s case, the Redstone family only owned 5% of Paramount’s stock, but they controlled about 77% of its votes.

💡And this isn't uncommon. For example, the Murdoch family only own 14% of the shares in News Corp but nearly 40% of the voting rights, which means, even once a company’s gone public, a lot of the power can still sit with the controlling owners.