Kristina Bialkowski remembers the day she got her first guitar at the Sam Ash Music Store on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

She was 10 and her father, who had started teaching her to play the instrument, took her into the shop down the street from their home to browse.

Now a musician who sometimes plays alongside the singer Geia, Bialkowski recalled staring up at the menagerie of instruments on the wall and feeling elated when she made her choice: a black, electric Fender.

She returned through the years to buy a synthesizer and a bass and, in high school, to hang out with friends, so she felt stunned recently when she drove by and saw a sign announcing that the shop — along with all the other locations in the iconic music chain that grew from a single store in Brooklyn into a nationwide business behemoth — would soon close down.

“No way!” thought Bialkowski, 29, who works in music marketing and also posts covers of songs on Instagram and TikTok. But then she thought back to her recent trips to the shop and how much less busy it had looked than when she was a young girl.

“I guess it makes sense,” she said. “No one really buys instruments anymore. Everyone is a DJ or they’re buying online.”

The company announced the imminent closure of all its locations — including stores in San Diego, Westminster, Torrance, Ontario and Industry — in a post on Instagram this week, saying it had made the decision with “a heavy heart.”

“Thank you,” it read, “for allowing us to serve musicians like you for 100 years.”

The company was founded in Brooklyn in 1924 by Sam and Rose Ashkynase, a young couple who both immigrated to the U.S. as children, he from Austria and she from Russia.

To cover the down payment on the small shop, they pawned Rose’s $400 engagement ring. They managed to stay open through the lean years of the Great Depression, according to a biography on the company’s website.

As it grew through the decades, expanding to other parts of New York and then across the nation, the company stayed in the family — run, at times, by the couple’s sons, grandsons and eventually their great-grandchildren. While Sam died in the mid-1950s, Rose continued to work until she was 80.

In 1998, as the company prepared for a big expansion into the Southland, The Times chronicled how the chain’s growth might hurt independent music stores in the region.

Paul Ash, one of the founders’ sons, who was president of the company at the time, brushed off such concerns, saying, “We feel that we expand a market, not shrink it.”

In a brief history on the company’s website, they describe their story as the quintessential American Dream and discuss “retaining the basic concepts of a family-run business even today.”

“The Sam Ash saga,” it reads, “is a classic business story.”

Indeed, the company’s decision to close all of its retail locations is part of one of the most defining business stories of the modern era, in which bricks-and-mortar stores have struggled to compete with online commerce.

In recent months, several other companies, including Macy’s, REI and 99 Cents Only, have announced plans to close locations in Southern California.

In a written statement, Derek Ash, one of the founders’ great-grandsons, declined to answer a question about why the stores were closing but confirmed that some locations would shutter by the end of the month and others would have sales going through mid-July.

He wrote that the family will always cherish memories of creating a space where many musicians tried out new instruments for the first time or met future band members. Over four generations, he said, they “had the privilege to watch the evolution of music in America.”

For Michael Gallant, who worked at the chain’s location in City of Industry for a few months in 2010, the job provided a critical sense of community that lasted far longer than the gig itself.

The 48-year-old musician — who has performed for years as a member of several Beatles tribute bands and will tell you, with a laugh, that “I’m the Paul McCartney guy” — said he has maintained friendships with several other Sam Ash employees and still cherishes memories of meeting customers.

When he recently heard about the closures through the grapevine, he said he felt bummed but not surprised.

“It certainly sucks,” he said. “But I saw the writing on the wall, mainly ’cause of the internet.”

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management have officially put in a bid for Paramount Global, as competition for the storied film and TV company continues to heat up.

Sony and Apollo submitted their $26-billion all-cash offer this week, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, Sony would take a majority shareholder role in the company, with Apollo as a minority shareholder. The joint bid is a nonbinding expression of interest.

The companies do not see regulatory approval as a hurdle to the deal, the person said, even though it would lead to the combination of two of Hollywood’s major movie studios.

Apollo already owns a minority stake in “Dune” producer Legendary Entertainment. The deal could run up against Federal Communications Commission rules that restrict foreign ownership of broadcast TV stations, so Paramount’s CBS station group likely would have to be sold or licensed to Apollo, which already controls Atlanta-based Cox Media Group.

Culver City-based Sony Pictures is owned by Tokyo-based Sony Corp., the electronics giant behind the PlayStation video game system.

The bid comes as Paramount nears the end of a 30-day exclusive negotiating period on Friday with tech scion David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which recently sweetened its takeover offer after outcry from shareholders, who saw the original bid as dilutive to their shares.

Ellison has teamed up with investment firms RedBird Capital Partners and KKR to make a bid to acquire Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s National Amusements holding company.

The complicated two-step proposition would involve Paramount acquiring Skydance Media and Ellison taking control of Paramount, including the storied Melrose Avenue Paramount studio lot, broadcast network CBS and various cable channels such as MTV and Comedy Central.

Skydance’s revised offer includes a cash infusion for Paramount and money earmarked for nonvoting shareholders, who have raised concerns that the prior bid would benefit the Redstone family at their expense.

On Monday, Paramount ousted chief executive Bob Bakish, who was known to have opposed the Skydance proposal. His opposition irked Redstone, who also had questioned some of Bakish’s business decisions, including not selling cable network Showtime, according to people familiar with the situation.

The company said three of its top entertainment executives would jointly run the firm: Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins; CBS CEO George Cheeks; and Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios chief Chris McCarthy.

Analyst Jamie Lumley at financial research firm Third Bridge described the bid as Sony and Apollo’s best attempt to make Paramount an offer it couldn’t refuse, though it could be futile at this point.

“Ultimately, this offer could be coming in after the 11th hour if the sweetener Skydance added in last weekend is enough to get a deal over the line,” Lumley wrote in a statement. “With the exit of Bob Bakish as CEO, Paramount is likely looking to finalize a deal as soon as possible as it plots a path forward for its beleaguered business.”

Shares of Paramount were up 12.5% to $13.80 around 12:30 p.m. PDT on Thursday.

Adding to the complications, Paramount also is in negotiations with Charter Communications to work out a new deal for carriage of the company’s TV channels. Paramount is heavily reliant on the fees it reaps from its TV stations, despite flagging ad revenue and increasing cord cutting. The outcome of these negotiations could factor into Paramount’s valuation in the event of a sale.

Free-market enthusiasts and mutual admirers Elon Musk and Javier Milei, Argentina’s new president, will headline next week’s Milken Institute Global Conference, the annual Beverly Hills confab that tackles the world’s most pressing problems with a dash of celebrity and Hollywood.

The Beverly Hilton event draws several thousand people from around the world and will kick off with remarks Monday by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva.

Also packed into a busy program will be Milei, a libertarian populist elected in November amid soaring inflation in his country, who will speak at lunch. Musk will close out the day talking with Michael Milken, founder of the conference and its sponsor, Santa Monica’s Milken Institute think tank.

The theme of this 27th annual gathering is “Shaping a Shared Future,” a reference to finding common ground amid the complex issues that have arisen in the post-pandemic world, including war, the emergence of artificial intelligence and the need to create a sustainable economy amid climate change — employing the tools of capitalism. All public panels can be watched on the institute’s website.

“The world is in transition again,” said economist Kevin Klowden, the institute’s executive director of MI Finance. “And what you’re seeing in the U.S. right now is a huge amount of dissatisfaction. There’s this very real sense that people would like to go back to the way it was prior to the pandemic, but it’s not.”

The conference headliners — who have been described as having a bromance, with Musk hosting Milei at Tesla headquarters in April — highlight some of the challenges and possibilities of finding common ground.

Musk has warned artificial intelligence could lead to the destruction of civilization without proper safeguards, and this year sued industry leader OpenAi, which he had co-founded when it was a nonprofit before leaving in 2018. He accused it of violating its original charter in search of profits.

OpenAi Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap will be a featured interview Monday on one of several conference panels about artificial intelligence.

The whiskered Milei is a self-described anarcho-capitalist who has vowed to shut down Argentina’s central bank. He will take the stage just hours after Georgieva of the IMF, a global institution that is often the target of populists yet is working with his administration to help dig Argentina out of its economic hole.

Among the leading themes is sustainability. John Podesta, President Biden’s senior advisor on international climate policy, will discuss the issue with Exxon Mobile chairman and chief executive Darren Woods.

That will be followed up by a talk among Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from coal state West Virginia; Chevron chairman and chief executive Michael Wirth and a top Department of Energy official.

“Up to this point, a lot of climate change has been hypothetical, but look at what you are seeing now in terms of the insurance market, wildly varying temperatures, the [flooding] pictures from Dubai. This is the new reality,” Klowden said. “There is a real understanding from the business community, the finance community, that this is something that needs to be incorporated into the future.”

As is typical, Wall Street bigwigs will opine on financial markets, asset management and other topics. The notables include hedge fund managers Bill Ackman and Ken Griffin, private equity titan David Rubenstein, hospitality magnate Barry Sternlicht, billionaire investor Ron Burkle and Wells Fargo chief executive Charles Scharf.

Hollywood panelists include Warner Bros. Discovery chief executive David Zaslav, producer Brian Grazer and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Soccer superstar and businessman David Beckham will speak on branding.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass will welcome the guests while former L.A. mayor and current U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti will talk about that country’s future. Public officials on stage will include the presidents of the New York and Minneapolis federal reserve banks and Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of multiple panelists on medicine and health, another focus of the Milken Institute.

The conference will not ignore the war in Ukraine, as well as Israel’s campaign in Gaza — which has sparked protests at UCLA, USC and college campuses nationwide — with some panels touching on the Middle East conflict by invite only and behind closed doors.

Klowden said it was important for the conference to address the Gaza conflict, especially since the institute has wide contacts in the Middle East and holds an annual summit there. However, given the sensitivity of the matter, “the fact is that nobody wants to come out and publicly say something at the global conference or anywhere else that’s going to upset everything,” he said.

The conference ends Wednesday with a concert by John Fogerty, who led Creedence Clearwater Revival and wrote the counterculture classic “Fortunate Son”— playing at one of the country’s leading celebrations of capitalism.