Today, a report announced that Paramount Pictures and Skydance had agreed to an upcoming merger. Skydance beat out fellow studio Sony Pictures alongside Apollo Global Management. The announcement will be made official once Paramount’s parent company, Shari Redstone, owns National Amusements, which owns 77% of class A Paramount shares. This comes from the news that former CEO Bob Bakish was outed and forced to retire in April (via IndieWire). Due to the company’s downward profit spiral over the last several years. He was replaced by a group of executives CBS president and CEO George Cheeks; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Brian Robbins, the head of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon. Also due to the merger, Skydance and RedBird will also contribute $1.5 billion in cash to Paramount to help reduce their overall debt.
06/11/2024 – Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements, has blocked all merger talks with Skydance.
Paramount Skydance will announce the merger later this week
Source: CNBC
