A new suitor for Paramount Global it has occured.
Media mogul Barry Diller is eyeing a takeover of National Amusements Inc., the company owned by Shari Redstone and controlling shareholder of Paramount, CNBC’s David Faber reported Tuesday.
of the dealer IAC, an online media and publishing company, signed a nondisclosure agreement and is looking into National Amusements’ data room, Faber said Tuesday. IAC could make a decision in the near future to bid for National Amusements, which would give it a controlling stake in Paramount, he said, citing sources.
These talks come weeks after National Amusements halted talks with Skydance over a proposed merger with Paramount.
After months of talks with a consortium that included David Ellison’s Skydance and private equity firms RedBird Capital and KKR, the deal was shelved pending Redstone’s signature. National Amusements, which Redstone controls, owns 77% of Paramount’s Class A shares.
Before canceling the proposed merger, National Amusements had agreed to the financial terms of the deal, CNBC reported. The proposed deal would see Redstone receive $2 billion for National Amusements, with Skydance acquiring nearly 50 percent of Paramount’s Class B shares for $15 apiece, or $4.5 billion. Skydance and RedBird also agreed to contribute $1.5 billion in cash to Paramount’s balance sheet to help reduce debt.
Terms of IAC’s potential bid are unknown, but it would likely be worth more than $2 billion, Faber said on Tuesday. First the New York Times mentionted Diller’s interest in Paramount.
While Diller, 82, is currently chairman of IAC and Expedia, he has a long history in the media industry, including serving as chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures in the 1970s and 1980s. He followed Paramount with the position his stint as head of 20th Century Fox, where he ignited the Fox network’s programming, including “The Simpsons.”
Diller has expressed the need to drop legacy media companies like Paramount from the hunt Netflix in the streaming wars and focus on their broadcast and pay TV networks.
During the Hollywood strikes last summer, he said that despite the cord-cutting, traditional pay TV is still profitable — unlike most streaming businesses. He called on legacy media to rebuild traditional networks.
Diller tried to buy Paramount Pictures in the 1990s, but ran afoul of Sumner Redstone, Shari Redstone’s father, who now controls the company.
Since then, Paramount has changed and grown in a number of ways. The company now includes the movie studio, as well as the CBS broadcast network, a portfolio of cable networks such as MTV and BET as well as the streaming services Paramount+ and Pluto.
While other suitors have According to reports Interested in acquiring Paramount, the company has focused on restructuring its operations.
Now led by the so-called Office of the CEO — CBS CEO George Cheeks, Paramount Media Networks CEO Chris McCarthy and Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins — Paramount has focused on exploring streaming joint venture opportunities with other media companies, cutting $500 million in costs and divesting non-core assets.
