media companies Paramount and Skydance are in exclusive negotiations on a merger – Kommersant

Media group Paramount Global is in exclusive negotiations to merge with another media company, Skydance Media. I wrote about this yesterday, April 3 The Wall Street Journal citing sources familiar with the situation. According to them, Paramount suspended negotiations with all other potential buyers for 30 days.

Over the past few months, Paramount has been reported to be in talks with a number of companies, including Warner Bros. Discovery, Allen Media. The media also wrote about negotiations with the investment fund Apollo Global Management, which first wanted to buy the Paramount Pictures film company for $11 billion, and later offered $26 billion (including debts) for the entire Paramount Global media holding. Also about negotiations with Skydance reported back in January. The company periodically produces and finances films in partnership with Paramount Pictures.

Paramount Global was created in December 2019 through the merger of Viacom and CBS Corp. Paramount’s assets include the film company of the same name, several television channels under the CBS brand, cable channels MTV, Nickelodeon, etc. The company’s capitalization is estimated at $9.5 billion with debts of $14.6 billion. Skydance and Paramount did not comment on the negotiations. After the WSJ reported on the exclusive negotiations, Paramount’s stock price rose 15%.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya