Shari Redstone (official pic ViacomCBS)
Paramount Pictures and the Paramount TV Studios group may finally have found a new owner in Skydance Media. Reuters reported that Skydance and Paramount have entered into “exclusive” merger talks.
Any deal would see Shari Redstone relinquish an integral part of the entertainment empire established by her late father Summer Redstone.
Paramount has an estimated value of nearly $40 billion.
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Paramount has been courted recently by many suitors including Apollo Global Management and the owner of the Weather Channel Byron Allen. In December there were reports that Shari Redstone was looking at a merger between Paramount and Warner Bros, which operates the Warner Bros movie studios and cable television networks like CNN and HBO.
The days of the great American movie studios standing alongside the American auto industry and others as giants of American capitalism have long since gone. One by one, what were once seven titans, have whittled away. United Artists died, Columbia Pictures is now Sony Pictures and makes a faction of the movies it once did and Fox sold out entirely to Disney.
Founded in 2006 by David Ellison, the son of entrepreneur Larry Ellison who founded Oracle computers, Skydance Media is a diversified entertainment company that focuses on creating high-budget films, television shows, and other media experiences. They’ve produced hits like Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible sequels, and Transformers films and television shows like Grace and Frankie, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Reacher.
Shari Redstone is a prominent figure in the American media landscape, known for her role as the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS) and president of National Amusements.
Paramount Global is the company that runs Paramount Studios and its media empire. This includes Paramount Studios, the CBS television network, and many cable channels like MTV. Paramount has been struggling lately and there was talk of a possible merger with another firm.
