Paramount Global (PARA), which includes many entertainment channels, has been at the center of merger talks for years. The fate of the company may be determined on Friday, as a key window of negotiations expires. This was reported by UNN with reference to Quartz News.
Details
On Friday, April 3, a decision may be made to sell a controlling stake in Paramount Global, a media conglomerate that includes Paramount Pictures, entertainment and family channels Nickelodeon, Nick Jr.
National Amusements Holding Company is in exclusive negotiations with Skydance Media to sell its controlling stake in the media giant.
We do not expect Paramount to operate independently in its current form for much longer
Amid doubts about its future, Paramount recently announced the departure of its CEO Bob Bakish, who reportedly had disagreements with Redstone over the Skydance deal.
For reference
Paramount has long been considered a potential acquisition target due to its small size compared to its competitors. The company's current market capitalization is only about $10 billion, compared to Disney's (DIS) $200 billion and Netflix's (NFLX) approximately $240 billion.
Rumors of a sale have been circulating for many years following widespread publicity over corporate governance issues that arose about a decade ago.
The flurry of M&A reports surrounding Paramount began with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who met with Bakish in late 2023 to discuss a potential merger. At the beginning of the year, media mogul Byron Allen offered $30 billion to buy all of Paramount's shares, including debt.
Recently, Paramount and Skydance agreed to a month of exclusive negotiations and concluded a deal that valued Skydance at about $5 billion. But the shareholders were deeply dissatisfied and expressed this through the mailbox. In their letters, they argued that the entertainment giant was manipulating "organized schemes," the merger was doomed to fail, and an "avalanche of lawsuits" could soon be rolling down the company's path.
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