Exclusive | Shari Redstone paid off $186M loan to Paramounts lenders with bulk of cash coming from Larry Ellison: sources

Shari Redstone paid off a nearly $200 million debt held by her family business that controls Paramount – and she did it with cash mostly fronted by tech tycoon Larry Ellison, The Post has learned. The 70-year-old daughter of the late media titan Sumner Redstone forked over $186 million last month owed to creditors of National Amusements — the holding company that owns 77.5% of Paramount’s voting stock, sources close to the situation said.On Tuesday, a source close to the situation confirmed that Redstone got the lion’s share of the cash from the Oracle co-founder, whose son David Ellison is the CEO of Skydance — the Hollywood studio behind the latest “Top Gun” and “Mission Impossible” blockbusters.Skydance and its partners, which include Redbird Capital Partners, agreed to pay $2.4 billion for the family’s entire NAI stake in a complex $8 billion deal that will lead to a merger with Paramount.David Ellison will helm new company.Redstone holds a 20% stake in NAI through two trusts in her name and is in line to receive about $350 million from its sale, according to Bloomberg.  She made the full payment on the 2018 loan, which carried a stiff interest rate of 11.5%, even though the balance wasn’t due until May 2025, insiders told The Post.Representatives for Redstone, Paramount and Skydance declined comment.Her decision to pay off the loan early came after reports that the media heiress was suffering a cash crunch as Paramount struggles with weakness across its business units, from CBS to cable networks like Comedy Central, MTV and Nickelodeon.As reported exclusively by The Post, National Amusements in February had sold real estate assets to make a $40 million debt payment to the same group of creditors.“Shari needed money and couldn’t wait until the deal was consummated,” an industry source following the situation said.Another source who supports the merger added: “She was in dire straits.

It’s fair to say she was desperate to sell ...