Sony Pictures Entertainment is in talks to join Apollo Global Management as part of its bid for Paramount Global.
The private equity firm has bid $26 billion for the movie studio, its broadcast and streaming businesses.
The talks are said to be an early stage but it has already been agreed that Sony would take the lead in the partnership.
Sony would also control a significant majority stake in the business.
Paramount has already declined the offer from Apollo, preferring to enter exclusive talks with David Ellison’s production company Skydance, with which it collaborated on Top Gun: Maverick.
There were concerns with Paramount as to how Apollo might finance its bid, even without Sony on board it had said no new debt financing would be required.
Ellison is working with investment firms RedBird Capital and KKR in the takeover of National Amusements, the Redstone family holding company, controlled by Shari Redstone. This would be followed by a merger of Paramount itself.
The attraction to the Redstone’s is that it would prevent the company from being broken up.
However, some Paramount shareholders believe this would not extract the greatest value from the assets.
