Potential Paramount Sale; thoughts and discussion

At any event, these recent moves are making their stock tumble.

Wall Street Journal is saying Sony and Apollo have made an all cash offer of $26 Billion for Paramount.

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/sony-apollo-make-26-billion-all-cash-offer-for-paramount-ade26ca4

I’ve been listening to The Town podcast about the whole Paramount thing and the host thinks that creatively and for running the studio in the long run, Skydance is the better deal. Especially, since David Ellison really wants to be in the business of producing movies and TV shows.

If Sony and Apollo Global buys it — the shareholders will get a good pay out but there’s also a lot of problems associated with it. For one, Five major studios will be down to four studios and recently more and more FCC is making noises about this kind of mergers, second, Sony is a foreign owned company. Foreign owned companies can’t own broadcast channels.

If Shari Redstone still turns down this all cash offer, the shareholders will sue. On the other hand, apparently, Paramount’s been mismanaged worse, there’s apparently a long history with Shari’s father, Sumner Redstone making worse decisions but the shareholders hardly did anything to stop him. Plus the fact that Shari has controlling interests means that while the shareholders can sue, at the end of the day it’s a lawsuit she’d win. She can do what she wants with Paramount at the end of the day.

Financial analysts and shareholders want Paramount the Apollo-Sony deal purely for financial reasons.

But also it’s a moot point because what matters more is what Shari Redstone wants to do, lawsuits be damned.

Which is she likely to go with?

It seems she’s partial to Skydance but we won’t really know anything yet. The 30 day exclusive window between Paramount and Skydance is ending so we might know something soon.

Granted, the two could extend their talks beyond Friday as pointed out in these reports.

So, Skydance would be the best option?

Skydcance could be, but as of Friday Paramount didn't extend the exclusive deal with Skydance.

Okay, according to Variety, it looks like Paramount isn’t taking either deal. Not Apollo/Sony, not Skydance. https://variety.com/2024/biz/news/paramount-global-reject-skydance-sony-apollo-offers-1235991298/

Wow...I did not expect this to happen...

Not sure if that Skydance deal is really flailing or not but the talks end at midnight. And it looks like their best and final offer wasn't really their best for investors. It might not be final either.

Well, at least we know that Sony isn't getting Paramount.

That’s unfortunate, Skydance was the best one IMO but the shareholders were too greedy and wanted an Apollo/Sony deal when that had too many regulatory issues to be feasible.

Well, it actually sounds like everything’s in flux right now. They’ll consider the Apollo deal, but I’m hoping they hold off.

We just gotta be patient and keep in mind the situation is fluid.

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on May 4th 2024 at 8:13:07 AM

It's not over yet... Skydance might still have a chance in the deals ring!

Edited by CursedBarney on May 4th 2024 at 4:20:21 AM

To be clear, they mean Skydance and Redstone. They are continuing negotiations, even with Apollo and Sony’s offer on the table.

If they do go through the negotiations, I do hope that Skydance is the one who takes on Paramount since they seem to be a better bet than Sony.

In the meantime, Warren Buffet has sold his Paramount stock. Source is Hollywood Reporter: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/warren-buffett-sells-paramount-stock-huge-loss-1235831979/

Here are his thoughts on his actions:

Some (older) from Wall Street Journal: Redstone is also considering just selling National Amusements without having Paramount merge with another entity should the deal fall through. The source is paywalled unfortunately.

https://www.wsj.com/business/media/paramount-redstone-merger-bakish-162cd854

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on May 5th 2024 at 10:33:57 AM

Bumping with new news from Deadline: A committee at Paramount will negotiate with Sony and Apollo but Skydance will continue negotiating as well. Also, James Cameron supports Skydance.

https://deadline.com/2024/05/skydance-paramount-negotiating-window-ending-soon-amid-sony-apollo-bid-1235903788/

The wrap is saying there may be other options the new CEO trio are considering, such as selling and then leasing out the studio lot.

https://www.thewrap.com/paramount-apollo-skydance-or-office-of-ceo/

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on May 6th 2024 at 10:06:32 AM

I would love to see Skydance be with Paramount. Sony-Paramount sounds like another Disney-Fox-scale disaster in the making.

That’s the general consensus among Hollywood. The people who aren’t shareholders, at least.

Here’s something that gets me: apparently, Paramount has a significantly lower debt load than Universal or Warner Bros, but everyone treats it like it’s worse…

Edited by BigBadShadow25 on May 6th 2024 at 8:32:55 AM

So, if Paramount goes to Skydance, will that mean that they will have bigger budgets for their films?

I'd say it'll be about the same (though probably not as high as the last MI film).