Paramount agrees to merge with Skydance

Paramount Global will merge with Skydance, capping off a months-long negotiation that included various twists and turns.

Paramount Global will merge with Skydance, capping off a months-long negotiation that included various twists and turns, and will see the Redstone family step away from control of the storied movie studio and media company.

Paramount’s special committee agreed to the merger on Sunday, days after Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, once again reached a preliminary agreement with Skydance. A deal had weeks earlier been stopped in its tracks.

The latest iteration of the deal will see the buying consortium, which includes RedBird Capital Partners and KKR, invest more than $8 billion into Paramount and to acquire National Amusements. The deal gives National Amusements an enterprise value of $2.4 billion, which includes $1.75 billion in equity.

“It’s a new Paramount, it’s not just a catchphrase,” said RedBird’s Jeff Shell, the former NBCUniversal CEO, on a call with investors Monday. “We think it’s going to be a new day for these combined assets.”

The merger will also put David Ellison, the founder of the production company Skydance and son of Oracle founder and billionaire Larry Ellison, at the helm of a major movie studio and among Hollywood’s elite. He will lead the combined company as CEO, while Shell will serve as president.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/paramount-skydance-merger-deal-ends-redstone-era-rcna160648

---