Skydance may pull out the pocketbook for Paramount Global

The Future. Although Shari Redstone keeps telling people Paramount Global isn’t for sale, Skydance and Redbird Capital are in the preliminary stages of a potential takeover of the storied media conglomerate. If the deal goes through, it could signal a new Hollywood ecosystem where moneyed, influential mini studios (Skydance, The North Road, and Blumhouse) are the key players making movies… while the studios and streamers focus on distributing them.

Move-in mogul
The long-rumored auction of Paramount may finally be coming true.

• David Ellison’s Skydance is teaming up with Gerry Cardinale’s Redbird to potentially purchase a majority stake in Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. (NAI) — the parent company of Paramount Global
• That would be a cheaper way of gaining control of Paramount because NAI holds 80% of the voting shares, but only 10% of the financial interest in the company — assets that include Paramount Pictures, PlutoTV, CBS, BET, and many others.
• That would likely make the combined company, as industry analyst Matt Belloni predicts, a “Sony Pictures-style ‘arms dealer’ content producer supplying the other streamers.”

A deal with Skydance and RedBird makes a lot of sense for Paramount Global, which has been financially struggling due to lower TV ad revenue and streaming losses. A sale to a traditional media conglomerate like Warner Bros. Discovery or NBCUniversal would require jumping through a lot more regulatory hoops. 

The acquisition would be a homecoming for Ellison, whose Skydance was a financing partner on Paramount blockbuster franchises like Mission: Impossible and Star Trek. For Cardinale, it would be another major step into Hollywood after backing Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Artists Equity. So far, Wall Street is all about it, too.