Billionaire investor Mario Gabelli’s investment firm is seeking more details on the valuation of National Amusements’ assets, the investor told Reuters on Friday, suggesting the company may challenge a landmark entertainment deal sealed this week.
Skydance Media and Paramount Global agreed to merge on Sunday in a deal that would see Skydance acquire National Amusements, the holding company of the Redstone family that owns a controlling stake in Paramount.
Gabelli Funds, which owns about 4.9 million Class A voting shares in Paramount, is seeking more transparency about the deal with National Amusements, according to a separate Gabelli source. The company sent a letter to Paramount’s general counsel on Friday requesting the information, the source said.
“Operation Fishbowl will likely begin today,” the 82-year-old Gabelli, CEO of Gabelli Asset Management Company Investors, wrote on the social media platform X.
Skydance Media and its deal partners plan to acquire National Amusements for $2.4 billion in cash in a related transaction in which David Ellison’s independent media company will merge with Paramount in an all-stock transaction that would value Skydance at $4.75 billion and create a company with an enterprise value of $28 billion.
The companies declined to say how much Shari Redstone will receive for her Paramount shares compared with other shareholders.
Skydance’s deal to acquire Redstone’s National Amusements values the holding company at $37.79 per Paramount share, giving the Redstone family $27.55 per Paramount share with $650 million in net debt.
That doesn’t exclude some of the assets National Amusements owns outside of Paramount, such as cinemas and real estate. National operates 759 screens in the U.S., Britain and Latin America.
The parties declined to provide sufficient information to directly compare the $23 per share that Class A shareholders will receive to the $15 per share that Class B shareholders will receive.
National Amusements and Paramount did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Gabelli has privately said for months that the deal could be harmful to investors and now appears to be preparing for a possible court fight.
Earlier this year, the Rhode Island State Employees Retirement System, an investor in Paramount Global, requested documents related to the company’s discussions with Skydance.
Rhode Island argued that it wanted to ensure that the best price for Paramount was negotiated.
