The Paramount-Skydance Merger Returns, for Real This Time
Brian Welk
Paramount and Skydance will merge after all.
In a huge twist just before the July 4 holiday, David Ellison’s Skydance Media has reached a tentative agreement with Shari Redstone to buy the holding company National Amusements and in turn merge Paramount Global with Skydance, IndieWire has learned, and according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The deal has now been referred to a special committee appointed by Paramount’s board to review and approve the deal.
It wasn’t more than a couple weeks ago that talks between Redstone and Skydance fell apart at the finish line. Skydance sounded like it had moved on. Just yesterday, a new bidder emerged, billionaire Barry Diller. The craziest saga in M&A corporate Hollywood news keeps getting crazier.
According to WSJ, Skydance would pay $1.75 billion to buy National Amusements (NAI) after IndieWire previously reported Skydance was set to pay $2 billion for NAI as part of $8 billion overall. It’s unclear what the other terms of the merger are.
NAI also isn’t demanding a vote that the deal be approved by majority shareholders, which held up the deal the last time. What’s more, Skydance and National Amusements have also agreed to a 45-day “go-shop period” so that other buyers can jump in. Prepare for more craziness.
Reps for Paramount Global and NAI declined to comment. Reps for Skydancedid not immediately respond to IndieWire’s request for comment.
Earlier today, talks surrounding the sale of Paramount’s BET assets perked up, with Bloomberg reporting BET’s current CEO Scott Ellis along with private equity firm CC Capital prepared to pony up $1.6 billion to buy the Black entertainment brand. Paramount’s stock news rose 6 percent thanks to the news, closing just above $10.
Paramount Global owns Paramount Pictures, CBS, Paramount+, Pluto TV, and cable channels like Nickelodeon and MTV, as well as BET (for now). Skydance and Paramount had seemed like a strong match because the two previously collaborated on “Top Gun: Maverick” and the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
If a merger does come to pass and gets approved by the regulatory powers that be, Ellison could become the company’s new CEO, and former NBCUniversal boss Jeff Shell and RedBird CEO (and former CNN chief) Jeff Zucker, and Skydance creative chief Dana Goldberg could all have increased roles at the new company.
In addition to Diller, who previously ran Paramount Pictures during its ’70s and early ’80s heyday, National Amusements has some other interested parties, Seagram’s heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. and “Baby Geniuses” producer Steven Paul. Sony and private equity firm Apollo also had a bid to buy all of Paramount Global outright rather than go after NAI.
Additional reporting by Tony Maglio
