David Ellison’s Skydance Media explores acquiring all of Paramount Global, sources say

David
Ellison’s
Skydance
Media
and
its
financial
backers
are
exploring
a
deal
to
take
private
all
of


Paramount
Global,
people
familiar
with
the
matter
told
CNBC.

Skydance,
the
film
and
TV
studio
run
by
Ellison,
has
exchanged
preliminary
information
with
Paramount,
said
the
people,
who
asked
not
to
be
named
because
the
deal
talks
are
private.
Full
due
diligence
hasn’t
started,
the
people
said.

Skydance
has
been
working
with
private
equity
firms
RedBird
Capital
Partners
and


KKR
&
Co.
on
a
deal
to
buy
National
Amusements,
the
holding
company
owned
by
Shari
Redstone.
It
controls
77%
of
Paramount’s
voting
stock.

But
that
deal
is
contingent
on
merging
Skydance
with
Paramount,
and
the
likely
structure
for
a
merger
would
be
a
complete
take
private
of
the
larger
media
company,
said
the
people.

Redstone
is
considering
selling
as
the
media
landscape
shifts
away
from
traditional
TV
toward
streaming.
While
Paramount
Global
has
run
a
profitable
business
for
decades,
it
is
smaller
than
Netflix,
Google’s
YouTube,
Apple,
Amazon,
and
other
larger
streamers
that
have
bigger
balance
sheets
to
afford
sports
and
entertainment
content.

No
acquisition
is
assured,
and
talks
could
fall
apart.

It
is
unclear
if
Redstone
would
demand
a
different
premium
for
selling
National
Amusements
than
the
remaining
shareholders
of
Paramount
Global
would
obtain.

Skydance
would
need
additional
capital
to
acquire
Paramount,
which
has
a
market
capitalization
of
$8.2
billion
and
about
$15
billion
of
debt.
Some
of
that
funding
could
come
from
Skydance’s
private
equity
partners
and
Larry
Ellison,
the
billionaire
co-founder
of


Oracle
and
David
Ellison’s
father.
Skydance
hasn’t
reached
out
for
outside
financing
yet,
as
it
hasn’t
decided
if
it
wants
to
move
forward
with
a
deal,
said
the
people.

Skydance
isn’t
interested
in
a
deal
where
it
would
only
acquire
National
Amusements
but
not
all
of
Paramount,
said
the
people.
While
such
a
deal
would
give
Skydance
control
of
Paramount,
it
wouldn’t
solve
Paramount’s
problems
as
a
publicly
traded
company,
which
include
running
the
growing
but
money-losing
Paramount+
streaming
service,
and
operating
declining
linear
cable
assets
such
as
MTV,
VH1,
Comedy
Central
and
Nickelodeon.

Spokespeople
for
RedBird,
Skydance,
Paramount
Global
and
National
Amusements
declined
to
comment.

Warner
Bros.
Discovery
has
also
had
preliminary
discussions
about
acquiring
Paramount
Global,
according
to
people
familiar
with
the
matter.
If
Redstone
sells
to
Skydance,
one
motivating
factor
would
be
her
fear
that
Warner
Bros.
Discovery
would
prefer
to
merge
with


Comcast‘s
NBCUniversal,
one
of
the
people
said.

Puck
first
reported
Skydance’s
interest
in
acquiring
National
Amusements.
The
Wall
Street
Journal

reported
last
week
that
Skydance
was
interested
in
a
two-part
deal
that
would
include
merging
Skydance
and
National
Amusements.
Bloomberg
first
reported
on
the

initial
exchange
of
company
information.

Disclosure:
Comcast
NBCUniversal
is
the
parent
company
of
CNBC.

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