It just seems like the maxi-acquisition of Paramount by Sony and Apollo is not destined to materialize, with the company it would have rejected the proposal and would have decided to carry out one merger with SkydanceCNBC’s David Faber reported.
Paramount and Skydance seem to have given the green light to the merger, which will probably be announced in the next few days, still awaiting the definitive form of the company’s majority shareholder, Shari Redstone, which should in any case arrive without any particular hitches already during the week .
The agreement comes after weeks of discussions also on the possible acquisition by Apollo Global Management and Sony Pictures, but this possibility appears to have finally been discarded by the film and television company.
This would therefore put Sony’s proposal out of play, which aimed at acquiring Paramount also to expand its intellectual property portfolio. The chosen solution instead leads to a full-fledged merger with Skydance which opens up interesting prospects.
A deal worth around 8 billion dollars in total
Under the deal, Redstone is expected to receive $2 billion for shares of National Amusements (which manages 77% of Paramount’s Class A shares).
Skydance would buy about 50% of Paramount’s class B shares for a total of $4.5 billion.
Skydance and RedBird would also contribute $1.5 billion in cash to Paramount’s balance sheet, thus trying to reduce the heavy debts accumulated by the company in recent years. The two entities would come to own two-thirds of the company, with the deal valued at around $8 billion in total.
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