2024-05-05 00:11:24
A special committee of Paramount Global’s board tasked with evaluating takeover bids for the company met Saturday morning, but rival bidders are waiting to hear the next steps.
Paramount ended its exclusive negotiations with Skydance Media without reaching an agreement Friday, allowing the special committee to consider other offers for the ‘Mission: Impossible’ and ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ production house. .
Paramount’s special committee has not yet contacted Sony Pictures Entertainment, which along with private equity firm Apollo Global Management sent a letter Wednesday expressing interest in acquiring Paramount, according to two sources familiar with the matter. affair.
For its part, Skydance, David Ellison’s company, engaged for months in negotiations with Paramount and its majority shareholder, Shari Redstone, is evaluating its options, reported Reuters.
A spokesperson for the special committee might not be reached for comment.
Paramount, like other studios, is struggling to recover from last year’s months-long strikes by Hollywood writers and actors, a weak advertising market and falling subscriptions to cable in the United States, which eroded profits from its broadcasting business.
Its streaming service, Paramount+, also lags behind rivals such as Netflix and Disney+ in terms of subscriber numbers – although Redstone had hoped the 2019 merger of CBS and Viacom would help the combined company, renamed Paramount Global , to be more competitive.
Paramount’s shares have fallen more than 65% since then, losing more than $14 billion in market value. (Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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