Skydance Media submits new merger offer to Paramount: WSJ

Skydance Media submitted a new offer to Paramount Global (PARA) in its bid to acquire the media giant, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo Finance Entertainment Reporter Alexandra Canal highlights the challenges Paramount is facing while also reviewing bids from Sony (SONY) and Apollo Global Management (APO).

Apollo Global Management is the parent company of Yahoo Finance.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.

Video transcript

All right, let's talk about Paramount because the battle for Paramount Sky Dance media reportedly submitting a new offer for a merger with Paramount Global and Paramount directors are expected to review the deal soon.

That's according to the journal.

This is the latest twist in what has been feels like over a month long battle here for the entertainment giant Yahoo Finance's Alexandra Canal has the details on that.

Ali it's a new day.

We've got a new offer on the table.

Yeah, it feels like these deals have just been all over the place over the past few months, a few weeks ago, it seemed like the Sony Apollo deal was going to win out.

Then it felt like we were entering a period where maybe no deal at all.

And now it seems like the Sky Dance deal is officially back on the table according to the Wall Street Journal Sky and submitted a sweetened offer that apparently is more favorable to both those voting shareholders along with those non voting shareholders.

And that was really the crux of the issue here when the Sky was first introduced, Shari Redstone, she controls Paramount through her family's holding company National Amusements.

She has consistently been in favor of the Sky Deal, but those non voting shareholders felt like the initial offer unfairly benefited Shari and came at the detriment to those other stockholders.

So that's what led to a lot of this back and forth.

And even though we don't have an official deal yet, we've seen a ton of changes already at this company.

Bob Back is out as CEO for directors are in his place.

There have been some industry watchers that believe Paramount to try and fix their problems internally before they go and try and sell them.

However, a lot of the issues that paramount is facing, it's really industry wide problems, the struggle to rest streaming profitability, the decline of linear TV.

These are all issues that are not unique to Paramount.

So, you know, moving ahead here, any deal will have to first be approved by an independent committee of directors, then it will ultimately be up to sha so future continues to remain unclear.

The stock is down about 20% since the start of the year, but we are seeing shares up about 2% today.

All right, Ali, thank you so much as always for joining us on this beat.

I know you're covering it very closely for us, so we really appreciate it.

Thank you so much.