June 4 (Reuters) - Paramount Global's ( PARAA ) top

executives on Tuesday laid out a sweeping restructuring plan

that includes $500 million in annualized cost cuts, potential

asset sales and a possible joint venture or other partnerships

for its Paramount+ streaming service.

Like other media companies, Paramount's fortunes has waned

as the traditional television business declined while the

streaming video service it launched to capture audiences has yet

to recover lost revenue.

The executives - CBS President and CEO George Cheeks; Chris

McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment

Studios; and Paramount Pictures President and CEO Brian Robbins,

- have led the company since the exit of former boss Bob Bakish

in April, who left amid growing tensions with Shari Redstone,

Paramount's controlling shareholder.

Redstone endorsed the co-CEOs and their plan to better

capitalize on the company's wealth of content and reduce costs

to strengthen its balance sheet.

"They are each experienced, respected leaders within our

company, in our industry, and they have been behind our biggest

successes for years," she said on Tuesday.

The annual shareholder meeting was the first time the

triumvirate publicly addressed investors as a group.

The company's shares fell 1.9% in early trading following

the executives' remarks.

Paramount has shed about $18 billion in market value since

December 2019, when Redstone reunited two halves of the family's

media empire, CBS and Viacom.

In April, Paramount entered into exclusive merger talks with

Skydance Media, but allowed that period of exclusivity to lapse

as it evaluated a rival nonbinding offer letter from Sony

Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management ( APO )

.

Under the terms of the latest offer from Skydance, Paramount

would acquire the independent studio in an all-stock transaction

valued at $4.75 billion, according to one person familiar with

the negotiations. Skydance and its deal partners, RedBird

Capital and KKR, would infuse Paramount with at least

$1.5 billion in fresh capital to be used to pay down debt, and

offer to purchase 40% of Paramount's nonvoting class B stock at

$15 a share, said the source, who spoke on condition of

anonymity.

In a related transaction, Skydance would acquire privately

held National Amusements, which owns movie theaters in the U.S.,

the UK and Latin America, and holds 77% of Paramount's class A

voting stock, representing the Redstone family's controlling

interest in the company.

That $2 billion deal would give Skydance CEO David Ellison

voting control over the larger media company, setting the stage

for the merger.

National Amusements has said it is reviewing terms of the

Skydance offer, as well as two other bids for the privately held

movie theater operator. As of Monday night, Redstone had not

reached a decision, according to a source familiar with the

matter.