The future of Paramount+ and the UK’s Channel 5 is in play after it emerged the backers of Skydance Media were considering an all cash deal for Paramount’s parent company National Amusements.
CEO David Ellison and other investors, including his father Larry, are in talks
about buying a majority stake in National Amusements from the Redstone family, led by Shari Redstone.
Wall Street Journal said Skydance was seek to buy “at least a majority stake” in National Amusements before merging Paramount Global.
Skydance is the company behind Paramount’s successful Top Gun: Maverick with the film studio being crucial to the deal. Paramount Global is also the parent company of Showtime, CBS, Comedy Central and MTV.
Any deal would be complicated by Paramount’s dual-class share structure, not to mention the amount of capital required to push the transaction through.
Other suitors have been mentioned in connection with a Paramount acquisition. These include Warner Bros. Discovery, though the Skydance conversations are said to be the most advanced.
In addition to the Oracle founder Larry Ellison, Skydance is also backed by private-equity firms RedBird Capital Partners and KKR; as well as Chinese tech investment giant Tencent.
