The production company behind Top Shot: Maverick could skyrocket to the top of Paramount’s content mountain.
Skydance Media, the production studio owned by Larry Ellison’s son David, is in talks to acquire a significant stake in Paramount Global. The exact nature of the deal has yet to be determined, including whether Skydance and its private investors RedBird Capital Partners and KKR will receive a majority stake or not. But talks between the two sides are moving quickly, following Skydance and Paramount. conclusion of an agreement take part in exclusive negotiations last week.
If the deal goes through, it will strengthen David Ellison’s position. height as a Hollywood power player.
For an upstart like Skydance, the purchase of Paramount Global, usually considered sick company, will represent a revolution. Skydance will own Paramount’s legendary library, which is no small feat. Godfather And Titanicthe entire CBS brand and its prized news channel, several cable channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, and a streaming service with 67 million subscribers at Paramount+. Closing the deal would mean the rich son ninth richest person in the world— who will still provide some of the capital needed to finance the deal — may have truly made it big in Hollywood.
Ellison first entered the movie business as a fresh-faced 23-year-old who many studios and executives thought they could scam out of some money. Instead, he took his family’s money and invested it in creating a successful company that has developed a long-term relationship with Tom Cruise, produced dozens of films and recently ventured into video games. Now Ellison is ready to make a deal on one of dying embers The Golden Age of Hollywood at Paramount Global.
Paramount and KKR declined to comment. RedBird and Skydance did not respond to requests for comment.
The current structure of the deal would be that Skydance would acquire Shari Redstone’s holding company, National Amusements, which controls approximately 77% of Paramount Global’s voting shares, but specifically less than 10% of its total capital. Skydance and Redstone already have an agreement in principle. according to to Bloomberg. Under the terms of the deal, Skydance and its partners will pay more than $2 billion for National Amusements, effectively giving them control of Paramount. They also negotiate to purchase a certain number of shares of common stock. The combined number of shares will give Skydance and its partners control of approximately 45% to just over 50% of Paramount’s shares, the company said. CNBC.
By Thursday, it appeared that negotiations between the two groups were picking up speed. According to the agency, executives from Paramount and Skydance plan to meet sometime next week. CNBC reported on Thursday, and investment firm RedBird, a specialist in the media sector, will begin due diligence on Paramount.
Skydance will then merge with Paramount Global. If that happens, the new company will be run by Ellison, with former NBCUniversal president and current RedBird CEO Jeff Snell holding the senior position.
Ellison and Paramount have a long-standing relationship. When the young scion first made his way into Hollywood, he financed and produced several Paramount films, including the Star Trek and Mission: Impossible films. He eventually struck out on his own, founding Skydance in 2010. Since then, the company has released several major hits, including Top Shot: Maverick And Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One.
In the first days Ellison said it was hard to shake off the rich kid aura. “There was a period of time when people just looked at us as money, and we knew it,” Ellison. said That The newspaper “New York Times in 2021. “But there has been a shift. Our content, ideas and execution have become more important than our capital.”
Since then, Skydance has expanded to include animation, video games and VR content. He also began attracting some of the best talent in the business. The animation division is headed by John Lassetera person who has already habitual with Silicon Valley encroaching on Hollywood with the launch of Pixar next to Steve Jobs. Cruise, who has worked with Skydance on several projects, sang Ellison’s praises in 2015. GQ profile. Skydance video game division protected licenses for major IP franchises such as Marvel and Star Wars.
If Skydance had succeeded in taking over Paramount Global, it would have been not just a personal triumph for Ellison, but a corporate triumph for the independent film studio that struck a deal with the legacy media company as a buyer rather than a seller. More often than not, in the history of the entertainment business, successful independent companies have ended up subservient to the giants that dominated the industry. It’s worth looking further than Pixar, where Lasseter made his name, which was bought by Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006. Skydance could also be acquired by a tech company in the same way that Amazon bought MGM for $8.5 billion in 2021.
Whether the Skydance deal is the best option for Paramount shareholders remains to be fully determined. Paramount had an independent committee, made up of eight of its 11 board members, tasked with finding the best deal for the company. On Thursday, three people are on that committee, along with one other board member. resigned from their positions as directors. At the same time, several shareholders with weapons in hand about a deal gearing up for a potential boardroom showdown. If the deal falls apart, Redstone and the Paramount board may have to agree to another deal, which at this point appears $26 billion all-cash offer from private equity firm Apollo.