Shari Redstone has changed her mind again!
Multiple reports on Tuesday said the media heiress had reached a tentative agreement to sell a controlling stake in Paramount Global to Skydance Media, just weeks after walking away from the deal between the two companies.
Redstone, who controls the entertainment giant through his family-owned 77 percent stake in National Amusements, has informed a special committee of Paramount Global’s board of directors of the agreement, two sources told Reuters.
The special committee is currently considering whether to combine Paramount, home to its namesake studios, CBS and Nickelodeon, with Skydance, which is run by David Ellison, the tech heir and son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Skydance will pay $1.75 billion for National Amusements as part of the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The independent studio, which has produced films such as “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part 1” and “Top Gun: Maverick” for Paramount, and National Amusements also agreed to a 45-day “go-shop period” during which other interested bidders can make offers to the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Paramount, National Amusements and Skydance declined to comment.
Paramount owns the namesake movie studio, CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon as well as streaming services. The company has struggled with a declining cable business, heavy debt and the expensive build-out of its streaming business.
Paramount shares rose 9% in after-hours trading on the Skydance news.
The deal was suddenly Ended In June, he held talks with David Ellison and ruled out a possible sale of a controlling stake in Paramount Global to an independent studio.
Under the terms of the deal, Skydance would acquire National Amusements for about $1.7 billion in cash and provide $4.5 billion to buy Paramount’s non-voting shares and a percentage of Redstone’s non-voting shares, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Skydance would also inject $1.5 billion into Paramount’s balance sheet, which could be used to pay down its $14 billion in debt.
The surprising turn of events came a day after billionaire media mogul Barry Diller entered the Paramount saga by announcing he was exploring a purchase of Redstone’s stake in NAI. The New York Times reported.
This also comes ahead of next week’s Sun Valley, Idaho conference, which will bring together many of the media giants.
Diller scoffed at the idea that he needed a financial partner to acquire Redstone’s stake.
“It’s ridiculous. IAC has over $4 billion in cash and liquidity,” he told The Post on Tuesday.
National Amusements owns cinemas in the United States, the United Kingdom and Latin America and holds 77% of the Class A voting stock of Paramount, which is owned by the Redstone family.
NAI had also attracted interest from two other parties: a consortium of investors led by Hollywood producer Steven Paul and Edgar Bronfman Jr., a media executive backed by private equity firm Bain Capital.
Sony Pictures and private equity firm Apollo Global Management had also expressed interest in buying Paramount for $26 billion.
