Until now, Paramount had resisted merger or purchase offers from Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Discovery.
After months of anxiety, the crisis paramount It seems on the way to being resolved. The Variety portal and other media report that the studio could avoid disappearance by merging with Skydance Media in an operation whose cost could rise to 2,000 million dollars.
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According to the agreement, the company David Ellison (son of billionaire Larry Ellison and brother of the producer Megan Ellison) would allow Paramount to solve its financial problems while preserving its brand and its stock market price. Skydance partners RedBird Capital and KKR are also participating in the offering.
Solution to the Paramount crisis?
Until now, Paramount had resisted merger or purchase offers from Sony Pictures (the only Hollywood major that does not have its own streaming service) and Warner Bros. Discovery.
To become effective, yes, the merger with Skydance would need the approval of the executive Shari Redstone. In addition to serving as non-executive president of Paramount Global, Redstone is the president of National Amusements Inc., a company that owns 77% of the voting shares in the studio.
At the moment, Redstone has not officially given the green light to the operation, according to sources cited by Variety. If he accepts the offer, it would end the control that his family has maintained over the corporation for decades.
On the other hand, the effects of this financial operation on the shareholders must be taken into account. Under the offer from Skydance and its partners, Paramount’s class B shareholders (a category that provides more control power than securities commonly purchased in the market) could sell just under half of their portfolios at a price of 15 dollars per share.
