Apollo Global Management has made an $11 billion offer to purchase Paramount Global’s studios, according to the Wall Street Journal, while the entertainment company reportedly weighs another offer from Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners.
Paramount is reportedly weighing another offer from Skydance Media and David Ellison.
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Key Takeaways
- The Apollo deal would require Paramount Global to break off its film and television studios, which produced “Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” last year, from the rest of the business.
- The $11 billion offer is significantly higher than Paramount Global’s market cap, which was $7.7 billion as of Tuesday.
- The news comes about one week after Axios reported the private equity firm was in talks to make an offer or bid on Paramount assets.
- Paramount shares rose over 11% to close at $12.51 after news of the deal broke Wednesday afternoon.
Key Background
The Apollo deal is reportedly only for Paramount Pictures, the company’s storied studio, but Paramount Global also owns CBS Entertainment Group and Paramount Media Network’s portfolio of television channels, including MTV and Nickelodeon. Shari Redstone, Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder through her family-owned company National Amusements, indicated she would like to sell the entire company, and Skydance Media reportedly made an offer in December. Skydance is owned by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Google co-founder Larry Ellison. The company reportedly plans to finance the deal with RedBird Capital, but few other details have been revealed since. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish also reportedly met with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to discuss merging the two entertainment giants, but those talks have now stalled, Axios reported in December.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Marc Rowan, the CEO and co-founder of Apollo, has a net worth of about $6.6 billion. Rowan founded the private equity firm with fellow billionaires Josh Harris and Leon Black in 1990, and the company now manages roughly $600 billion in assets.
This article was first published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
