Paramount Global Merges with Skydance Media A New Era for the Media Giant
TapTechNews July 8th news, Paramount Global officially announced last Sunday its merger with Skydance Media of David Ellison (son of the founder of Oracle), and this transaction has been unanimously approved by the special committee of Paramount Global.
Paramount is one of the largest media asset companies in the world, including Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV, Channel 5 in the UK and Channel 10 in Australia. Paramount Pictures is the fifth-oldest and the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and it is also one of the Big Five film studios in the United States, with IPs including the Mission Impossible series and the Godfather series.
However, Paramount has struggled in its transition to streaming media and has been split due to internal power struggles, and the former CEO Bob Bakish has also been removed.
Paramount has been considering merging with Skydance Media, which previously supported Paramount's film Top Gun: Maverick, and now this deal is finally officially announced.
According to the agreement, among the $8 billion (TapTechNews note: currently about 58.354 billion Chinese yuan) that Skydance injects into Paramount, it includes $2.4 billion (currently about 17.506 billion Chinese yuan) paid to the National Amusement Company that controls the group. After that, a new Paramount worth $28 billion (currently about 204.24 billion Chinese yuan) will be established.
The merged company will be led by David Ellison as chairman and CEO, and former NBCUniversal chief executive Jeff Shell as president.
The Ellison team plans to reposition Paramount to improve profitability, promote the stability and independence of creators, and make more investments on the faster-growing digital platforms.
It is worth noting that Paramount Global has also considered selling some businesses separately, but none of them were finally reached. In addition, Sony Pictures and private equity giant Apollo considered a $26 billion (currently about 189.651 billion Chinese yuan) package acquisition of Paramount, and this deal also failed to materialize in the end.