Skydance Media has reportedly reached a preliminary agreement to buy National Amusements, after merger talks broke down last month.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reports that Skydance, the production company run by David Ellison, then plans to merge with Paramount Global. National Amusements owns 77% of Paramount’s voting shares, and the deal was reportedly being reviewed by a special committee of directors at Paramount as of Tuesday evening.
Paramount stock was up almost 13% in pre-market trading on Wednesday morning. The company’s stock is down 25.6% year-to-date.
Skydance would pay $1.75 billion for National Amusements under the deal, The Journal reports. The two companies have also reportedly agreed to a 45-day “go-shop period,” during which other bidders can make offers for Paramount. National Amusements has received interest from other buyers, including an investor consortium made up of film producer Steven Paul and media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr., as well as IAC chairperson Barry Diller.
In June, a deal fell apart after National Amusements president Shari Redstone ended discussions with Skydance. National Amusements had also reportedly wanted Skydance to agree to provide legal protection if shareholders sued over the deal. Under a previously proposed deal, Skydance would have acquired National Amusements for about $1.7 billion, and Skydance had agreed to merge the company with Paramount in a stock deal.
This time, The Journal reports, National Amusements is not mandating that the merger be approved by a majority of non-Redstone shareholders, which the two parties couldn’t agree on in previous negotiations.