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Paramount Global (PARA) stock climbed as much as 8% on Thursday, closing up about 5%, following more M&A reports — this time on news that production studio Skydance Media wants to take all of Paramount private.
According to CNBC, Skydance and financial backers RedBird Capital and KKR are working on a deal to acquire National Amusements, the holding company that houses Paramount and controls the media giant through its class A shares.
Shari Redstone currently serves as the non-executive chairwoman of Paramount Global and president of National Amusements (NAI).
To note, NAI owns approximately 10% of Paramount’s equity capital value and maintains 77% of voting shares — valued at around $1 billion, although that does not account for what could be a “meaningful control premium,” Wells Fargo analyst Steve Cahall wrote in a recent note to clients.
The deal, which is in early stage talks, would be contingent on merging Skydance with Paramount, which would likely take the media company private, according to the report. Of course, it’s possible talks could fall through.
Paramount and RedBird Capital declined to comment. National Amusements and Skydance Media did not immediately respond to Yahoo Finance’s request.
On the heels of the M&A chatter, Paramount announced layoffs in an internal memo later on Thursday, citing the need to “operate as a leaner company and spend less.”
“As it has over the past few years, this does mean we will continue to reduce our workforce globally. These decisions are never easy, but are essential on our path to earnings growth,” the memo read. No specific numbers or timeline was provided.
The memo, obtained by Yahoo Finance, also revealed the company will work to drive streaming profitability and maximize content “with the biggest impact” in 2024. That means producing less international content.
Paramount’s long rumored sale
Outside of Skydance, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has also been rumored as a potential buyer. WBD CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish met to discuss a possible merger back in December, Axios first reported.
Both companies declined to comment on the meeting, although Paramount has certainly become the industry’s No. 1 pick for a breakup or merger due to its small size relative to competitors — which has also meant getting passed over by some consumers that only want to pay for so many streamers.
The company boasts a current market cap of just around $9 billion, compared to Disney’s (DIS) $171 billion and Netflix’s (NFLX) nearly $240 billion.
The company recently committed to divesting non-core assets as it works to pare down debt and improve its balance sheet. Last year, it announced the sale of Simon & Schuster to investment firm KKR after the publishing giant’s sale to Penguin Random House collapsed late last year. The $1.62 billion all-cash deal was completed in October.
Showtime and BET Media Group are two assets that have also recently been the subject of sale rumors.
In December, Bloomberg reported Paramount is once again in talks to sell BET — this time to its CEO Scott Mills and former Blackstone executive Chinh Chu, who now runs private investment firm CC Capital Partners. A price of just under $2 billion is under discussion, according to the report.
Wall Street seems ready for the next big media merger to happen with analysts predicting a Paramount deal could set off an M&A frenzy.
In addition to Paramount, Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich predicted Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal (CMCSA) are also “likely to be impacted [by consolidation] over the next 18 to 24 months.”
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.
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