Shari Redstone kills Skydance bid to buy her controlling stake in Paramount Global

By: Alexandra S.

Shari Redstone pulled the plug Tuesday on a deal to sell Paramount Global-parent National Amusements to Skydance Media – even as a special committee of the media giant’s board was expected to meet to vote on a merger proposal.

The media heiress walked away from a $1.7 billion offer from the David Ellison-led independent studio for Redstone’s 77% stake in her family-run business, the Wall Street Journal reported.

National Amusements confirmed the deal was dead, saying the company has “not been able to reach mutually acceptable terms, regarding the potential transaction with Skydance Media.”

“NAI is grateful to Skydance for their months of work in pursuing this potential transaction and looks forward to the ongoing, successful production collaboration between Paramount and Skydance,” the rep said.

Shares of Paramount plunged nearly 8% shortly after news broke that the deal fell through.

NAI said the company “supports the recently announced strategic plan being executed by Paramount’s Office of the CEO.”

Paramount’s three co-CEOs recently unveiled a plan to slash costs and find a partner for its money-losing streaming service, Paramount+.

Redstone will now likely pursue a sale of just National Amusements, without merging Paramount with another company, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.

NAI has received interest from two other suitors, an investor consortium led by Hollywood producer Steven Paul, and media exec Edgar Bronfman Jr., who is backed by private equity firm Bain Capital.

Under Skydance’s proposed deal, the production company behind hits like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” would have snapped up National Amusements for around $1.7 billion in cash.

The second part of the deal would have entailed Skydance merging with Paramount, owner of Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon, in a stock deal.

That step was subject to review by a committee of Paramount directors, who had recently approved the economic terms of the merger but continued to negotiate with Skydance about other deal points, The Journal said.

The outlet said that some of those points included pushing for a deal to be subject to a vote of all other shareholders. The Journal reported that National Amusement was supportive of a vote.

Skydance said such a vote is “a nonstarter,” according to The Journal.

The committee was scheduled to vote on the Paramount merger with Skydance on Tuesday afternoon, but it is not clear if the vote happened.

A spokesperson for Paramount Global declined to comment. Skydance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.