Paramount Global Committee Reportedly Recommends $3 Billion Bid From Skydance Media
After months of wrangling between shareholders and owner Shari Redstone, a recent sweetened offer by tech heir David Ellison may have gotten his takeover hopes over the line.
Shari Redstone, who inherited National Amusements and all its associated brands including Paramount Global and CBS from her father, is set to be granted her wish to offload her ownership to another billionaire heir, David Ellison.
Redstone has been trying to get rid of National Amusements for years, and always favored the bid from Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and CEO of the quickly rising Hollywood production company Skydance Media.
Skydance offered Redstone $2 billion for her 77% stake in Paramount Global via her ownership of National Amusements, but the offer raised a storm from Paramount’s major investors that the deal was only favorable to Redstone herself, and a merger would devalue their stock. Instead, investors pushed the Board to consider a bid from private-equity giant Apollo Global Management, who had made a $27 billion offer to acquire all of Paramount Global, which was declined by the Board after it became clear the hedge fund intended to slice and offload parts of the legacy media brand. Responding to investor pushback, Skydance revised its bid to reduce the amount they would pay Redstone and reallocate the some more equitably to the company’s nonvoting Class B shareholders.
The committee of Paramount Global’s board of directors charged with managing the sales process has now reportedly accepted Skydance’s offer, which now awaits Redstone’s approval. If the offer goes through, Skydance would pay about $2 billion for National Amusements, and then Paramount would acquire Skydance in an all-stock transaction worth around $5 billion. The new offer added a $3 billion deal sweetener comprised of a mix of share buybacks and cash that could be used to pay down debt.
In recent years Paramount has struggled with financial and leadership troubles, but the legendary studio owns iconic franchises including The Godfather, Top Gun, and Mission Impossible, as well as CBS Television Network, Showtime, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV and Black Entertainment Television. Over the past decade, Skydance Media has become known for pumping out hit after hit, collaborating with Paramount of the latest Top Gun and Mission Impossible movies, producing Heart of Stone, The Old Guard and 6 Underground for Netflix , The Family Plan for Apple TV+, Reacher for Prime Video, and many more. In total, Skydance’s films have earned more than $8 billion at the worldwide box office.