Shares of Paramount Global soared 15% Wednesday following a report that Shari Redstone — the company’s controlling shareholder and non-executive chair — had reached a tentative agreement to sell her stake to Skydance Media.
Bloomberg News, citing anonymous sources, reported that Redstone had come to a tentative agreement to sell her stake in National Amusements Inc. to David Ellison’s Skydance. NAI holds a nearly 80% voting stake in Paramount Global. The Bloomberg report didn’t include details on price or other terms.
However, sources told PvNew that no sales agreement — preliminary or otherwise — has been negotiated at this point. Reps for Paramount Global, NAI and Skydance have declined to comment on the M&A talks.
PvNew reported Tuesday that Redstone and Skydance were close to establishing 30-day window for exclusive deal talks after months of discussions. According to knowledgeable sources, NAI and Skydance have now entered into a provisional agreement covering such exclusive negotiations, likely with a basic outline of potential deal terms.
Paramount Global stock closed at $13.52/share Wednesday, up 15% on the day, but still well off its 52-week high of $24/share.
The talks between Redstone’s NAI and Skydance — the production company behind film franchises including “Mission: Impossible” and “Transformers” in partnership with Paramount — and Skydance’s finance partners including RedBird Capital were expected to heat up after private-equity giant Apollo Global Management last month floated an offer for Paramount Pictures alone said to be valued at $11 billion.
It’s understood that Redstone would prefer that the company’s major film and TV assets stay largely intact in a sale, not only to maximize the deal value but also to protect the legacy of the media empire that her father, the late Sumner Redstone, had built. There’s a likelihood that Apollo Global could bid for the entirety of Paramount Global given the advanced stages of the NAI-Skydance talks.
Paramount Global’s assets include Paramount Pictures; the CBS network and owned local stations; cable networks including Comedy Central, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon; and the direct-to-streaming business housing Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
Redstone’s conversations with Skydance have been held on and off since at least last November. The uncertainty around the company’s future has become a handicap for Paramount as it looks to cut deals with creative talent and other business partners.
