Skydance and National Amusements near Paramount deal as special committee reviews terms

David
Ellison’s
Skydance
has
reached
a
preliminary
deal
with
Shari
Redstone’s
National
Amusements
to
merge
with


Paramount,
according
to
two
people
familiar
with
the
matter,
resurrecting
a

deal
which
failed
just
weeks
earlier.

Controlling
shareholder

National
Amusements
has
referred
the
deal
to
the

Paramount
special
committee,
according
to
people
familiar
with
the
matter.
Paramount’s
special
committee
is
currently
reviewing
and
voting
on
the
deal,
according
to
a
person
familiar
with
the
matter.
A
spokesperson
for
Paramount
declined
to
comment.

Paramount
shares
surged
as
much
as
9%
on
the
news.

The
resurrected
deal
will
see
Redstone
receive
a
reduced
consideration
of
$1.75
billion,
according
to
a
person
familiar
with
the
matter.
The
other
financial
terms
of
the
deal,
which
CNBC
previously
reported,
will
remain
unchanged:
Skydance
will
acquire
roughly
half
of
Paramount’s
controlling
shares
at
$15
per
share,
for
$4.5
billion,
and
contribute
$1.5
billion
towards
Paramount’s
balance
sheet.

Redstone
killed
the
initial
bid
in
June
as
it
was
near
the
finish
line.
One
of
Redstone’s
reasons
was
feeling
as
though
Skydance
had
retraded
the
deal
by
asking
her
to
take
hundreds
of
millions
of
dollars
less
than
the
previously
agreed
to
payment,
according
to
one
of
the
people.

The
winding
deal
process
had
already
led
to
the
departure
of
CEO
Bob
Bakish
earlier
this
year,
leaving
in
place
a
three-headed
office
of
the
CEO
to
run
the
company.
Other
interested
bids
included
a

joint
effort
from
private
equity
firm
Apollo
and


Sony,
as
well
as
a

recent
entreaty
from
Barry
Diller,
chairman
of
media
conglomerate


IAC
as
well
as
a
former
Paramount
executive.

The
preliminary
agreement
was
first
reported
by

The
New
York
Times
and

the
Wall
Street
Journal.

—
CNBC’s
Julia
Boorstin
contributed
to
this
report.