Weeks after Paramount’s shareholder and Skydance abruptly ended merger talks, the two sides have reached a preliminary agreement to create a new Hollywood giant, four people familiar with the negotiations said on Tuesday.
The deal still must be approved by a special committee of Paramount’s board, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as talks continued.
Paramount — the parent company of CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon — and Skydance, the upstart movie studio that helped produce “Top Gun: Maverick,” broke off talks in June just before a scheduled vote on the merger. While the two sides had agreed to financial terms, Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder through its parent company, National Amusements, had clashed with Skydance in the final weeks of negotiations.
But the two sides have continued to talk, and now a committee of Paramount’s board will assess whether the new terms will be sufficiently palatable to shareholders, some of whom pushed back significantly on the latest proposed deal. One likely focus will be the extent of protection afforded to National Amusements in the event of shareholder lawsuits.
In this latest deal, National Amusements’ equity will be valued at $1.75 billion, up slightly from $1.7 billion in the last incarnation of the transaction, three of the people said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
