The Ellison family have owned Paramount only since mid‑2025 , so as of July 2026 they’ve controlled it for just under a year.

Quick Scoop: Timeline in Plain English

  • Deal agreed: Shari Redstone, through National Amusements (the longtime controlling shareholder of Paramount), agreed to sell to David Ellison’s Skydance in July 2024.
  • Regulatory limbo: The deal then went through months of regulatory review and negotiations; reports describe it as a 19‑month process from initial talks to final consent.
  • Merger closed: Skydance’s roughly $8 billion merger with Paramount was completed in mid‑2025.
  • Post‑merger structure: After closing, the combined company became Paramount Skydance , with David and Larry Ellison as the majority owners , alongside minority investors like RedBird Capital, CJ ENM, and Tencent.
  • Control details: An FCC filing clarified that David Ellison would control 100% of the Ellison family’s voting interests in Paramount Global once the deal closed.

Putting that together: the Redstones effectively ceded control in 2025 , and the Ellisons have been in charge for less than a year by early 2026.

Who “Owns” Paramount Now?

  • The entity is now known as Paramount Skydance , reflecting the merger of Skydance Media (founded by David Ellison) with Paramount Global.
  • David Ellison is CEO of the merged company and the key hands‑on owner.
  • Larry Ellison , Oracle’s billionaire founder, supplied around $6 billion in backing and owns the bulk of the holding company that controls Paramount’s voting stock (around 77.5% of that holding company, per reports).

So when people say “the Ellisons own Paramount,” they’re talking about David running it and Larry providing the money and majority stake through the deal structure.

How New Is This Ownership?

If you’re thinking in “Hollywood history” terms:

  • Paramount traces back to 1912 (Famous Players, founded by Adolph Zukor).
  • The Redstone family effectively controlled Paramount via National Amusements from 1994 until this Ellison deal in 2025.
  • The Ellison era is therefore brand‑new , just starting in the mid‑2020s.

In other words, decades of Redstone control vs. months of Ellison control so far.

Why This Became a Trending Topic

  • The Ellisons are a tech‑wealth family (Oracle) stepping into a traditional Hollywood studio, similar to Jeff Bezos buying The Washington Post or Lorene Powell Jobs owning The Atlantic.
  • Analysts pointed out a big shift: while the Redstones controlled Paramount with a relatively small economic stake (around 10%), the Ellisons are expected to hold up to about 70% , aligning control with real financial risk.
  • Coverage in outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, Wired, and others has framed this as one of the most significant media power shifts of the 2020s.

“Less than a year ago, Skydance Media closed its $8 billion merger with Paramount…” — Wired, underscoring how recent Ellison control is.

Mini FAQ

  1. Did the Ellisons own Paramount before 2025?
    • No. They were partners and financiers in Hollywood (via Skydance and Annapurna), but they did not own Paramount until the 2025 merger closed.
  1. Are they the sole owners?
    • They’re the controlling owners. There are minority investors and public shareholders, but Ellison family entities hold the majority voting and economic stake.
  1. So “how long have they owned it?”
    • Since mid‑2025 , which is less than a year as of mid‑2026.

TL;DR:
The Ellisons only started owning and controlling Paramount when Skydance’s $8 billion merger with Paramount Global closed in mid‑2025 , so as of 2026 they’ve had the studio for just under a year.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.