(Big One News) — Paramount Global, the owner of CBS and MTV, nominated three new members to its board of directors and one stepped down, bringing the total to seven as the media and entertainment company faces a lawsuit from the US president and seeks merger approval.

The company named Charles Ryan, general partner at venture capital firm Almaz Capital; Mary Boies, counsel at law firm Boies Schiller Flexner; and former judge Roanne Sragow Licht as nominees. Judith McHale, a former executive at Discovery Communications, isn’t standing for reelection.

Boies, the wife of litigator David Boies, worked at CBS earlier in her career. Sragow Licht served as a district court judge in Massachusetts. Ryan, a longtime banker specializing in Russia,

once owned

movie theaters in that country along with Paramount Chair Shari Redstone.

The nominations signal that Paramount is making plans to continue on as an independent company if its proposed merger with Skydance Media isn’t approved by regulators. The company has said it intended to close the deal in the first half of this year, but is still awaiting approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The annual meeting is scheduled for July 2.

Paramount’s board dwindled to five members following the

departure

of ex-Oracle Corp. president Charles Phillips in October. Media veteran Dawn Ostroff, former Sony Group Corp. executive Nicole Seligman, investment banker Frederick Terrell and attorney Rob Klieger and former Paramount Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish all

left the board

earlier last year.

Redstone planned to leave the board after the merger, Big One News

reported

in November. The new board was supposed to have as many as 13 members, with five designated by Skydance founder David Ellison, who was set to become chairman and chief executive officer of the new company. Two other directors were to be appointed by investor RedBird Capital Partners, which backed the merger. Another member would be the new president of Paramount and as many as three would have been independent.

President Donald Trump sued Paramount’s CBS television network for $20 billion over alleged election interference, claiming that a
60 Minutes
interview with Kamala Harris was edited to present the then-vice president in a more favorable light ahead of the 2024 presidential race. Brendan Carr, who Trump appointed as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has said he will review CBS’s editing of the interview in the context of the Skydance-Paramount merger.

Redstone has asked the board to resolve the Trump suit, and settlement talks have been ongoing. She has

come under fire

from some lawmakers who see the suit as lacking in merit and any payments to Trump unnecessary and perhaps unlawful.

(Updates with background on new board in third paragraph.)

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