Word: paramount
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Manhattan dinner party three weeks ago, Barry Diller was constantly asked what he was going to do next. The flinty mogul, whose QVC cable network had lost an expensive bid to buy Paramount Communications, would say only, "I'm onto something." Late in the evening, he stood at the door chatting with Don Hewitt, executive producer of CBS's 60 Minutes, and Hewitt's wife, TV newswoman Marilyn Berger. "Barry," Berger said nonchalantly, "you really should come around the show more often." Diller, twinkling and almost winking, replied, "Oh, I'll be around...
Around? Diller is never just around. And he is always onto something -- usually on top. In the '70s he successfully ran Paramount's empire of movies. In the '80s, at Fox, he achieved the impossible: launching a fourth network and making it flower. In 1992 he became a partner in the home-shopping channel QVC, a roadside fruit stand on the new information superhighway. Instead of instantly upgrading the network's programming, Diller used QVC as a piggy bank for the hostile raid on Paramount. For once, he was vanquished, by Viacom Inc., and when the battle was over Diller...
Wall Street wasn't sure who would be boss, but it responded emphatically. The day the merger was announced, the stock of both CBS and QVC rocketed 19%. It pumped up a QVC stock value that had been cut sharply after the Paramount sortie. And it brought Tisch's company almost back to its May level, before CBS got a black eye by losing eight of its affiliate stations to Fox. CBS had also suffered wounds from an earlier affiliate raid by Rupert Murdoch, owner of the News Corp. (which includes the Fox network), and Revlon magnate Ronald Perelman...
...huge publishing house Simon & Schuster, and his young, third wife Laura Yorke invited a dozen Manhattan media swells to a dinner party. The guest of honor was to be Snyder's new boss, Sumner Redstone. Redstone's company, Viacom, acquired Simon & Schuster when it bought Paramount Communications, which owned the publisher. But the day before the party, Redstone left a message on Snyder's answering machine, backing...
...volume, high-profile style produced profits that were just about average for the industry, but his personality created serious turnover problems. An arrow of a man, with a loud, deep voice and a blunt manner, he underscored every bottom line with outbursts of temper. When Martin Davis took over Paramount (then Gulf & Western) 10 years ago, the two dictatorial bosses began a festering, not quite open feud. Snyder is a buccaneer, better suited to being an entrepreneur than an employee. Says Joan Didion: "This is the game he wanted to play; he played it for 30 years, and he lost...