Apollo offers $11 billion for Paramount’s Hollywood studio
Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management has made an $11 billion offer to buy Paramount Global ’s film and TV studio, according to people familiar with the situation.
The bid comes as an independent committee of the company’s directors is reviewing another offer from Skydance Media to merge with all of Paramount, which also owns CBS, Nickelodeon and a number of other cable networks.
Paramount’s studio has long been an acquisition target.
Netflix was among a number of companies that expressed interest over the past few years in buying the studio, which is behind such movies as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “A Quiet Place,” according to other people familiar with the situation.
Apollo could join with other companies to finance a deal.
But Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone , and other board members have resisted selling the studio, which they consider the crown jewel of the company . Redstone, who is open to selling Paramount in its entirety, would have to agree to breaking up the company and allowing a sale of the studio to proceed.
Apollo’s offer is more than the entire market capitalization of Paramount Global, which is currently around $7.7 billion. While the studio business is attractive, given its vast library and the demand for fresh programming in the streaming industry, Paramount’s TV networks are declining as the cable business contracts.
Bloomberg and Axios earlier reported on Apollo’s interest in Paramount.
Meanwhile, Skydance Media, the production company run by David Ellison , has made an offer to buy Paramount parent National Amusements and merge Skydance into Paramount.
Redstone controls National Amusements, which owns almost 80% of the voting shares of Paramount.
The details of that offer couldn’t be learned. Ellison is the son of billionaire Larry Ellison , the co-founder of Oracle , who is expected to help fund any deal.
In evaluating the offers, Paramount’s directors have to determine whether the deal would be good for all shareholders, not just its controlling shareholder, National Amusements.
It has been months since news of the Skydance interest in National Amusements first surfaced late last year. Following Wednesday’s news of the
Apollo bid, Paramount’s stock closed up 12% at $12.51 a share. Before Wednesday’s trading, the stock was down about 20% year to date.
Paramount has also had discussions with Warner Bros. Discovery about a merger and has discussed a streaming partnership or joint venture with Comcast, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.
The daughter of the late media mogul Sumner Redstone , Shari Redstone reunited the family’s media empire by merging Viacom and CBS in 2019, later renaming the resulting company Paramount Global.