Just How Complex Could a Sale of Paramount Get? What Will Happen to ‘Mission: Impossible,’ ‘Yellowstone,’ Other Franchises?
As M&A talks surrounding Paramount appear to pick up steam, what will happen to its various properties if it’s sold off piece by piece?
Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is confronted with several choices about the future of the company. At the forefront of her mind is the question of whether or not to sell the company, and if so, to whom. Paramount has fielded serious merger and acquisition (M&A) offers from the private equity firm Apollo Global Management, as well as from billionaire David Ellison of Skydance Media in recent months. New details from Variety help lay out exactly what might happen to the various segments of Paramount if the company is sold piecemeal, and they make clear why Redstone seems to be leaning toward Ellison’s offer.
- Apollo Global Management’s offer for Paramount encompassed only the Paramount movie and TV studios.
- Ellison’s bid to acquire Paramount is for the entire company, not just individual segments.
- A report from Bloomberg indicates that Redstone and Paramount’s board may have different feelings about the offers on the table.
Variety’s report details just how complicated the distribution of Paramount’s assets could become if it pursues the Apollo deal. The firm has offered $11 billion to acquire the Paramount Pictures movie studio in addition to the company’s TV studio. That offer is more than the entire current stock valuation of Paramount Global, which is around $7.3 billion.
Paramount’s TV Media division includes the CBS Television Network, as well as 29 owned-and-operated CBS stations. It also encompasses Paramount’s most popular cable channels, such as Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, Paramount+ with SHOWTIME (formerly just Showtime), and more. If Apollo’s bid is intended to include the studios housed in the TV Media Division, it could acquire franchises like “Yellowstone and other shows from the pen of Taylor Sheridan,” the “FBI” series and many others. Purchasing Paramount’s film studio would give Apollo rights to the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, library titles like “The Godfather” trilogy, “Saving Private Ryan” and more.
If Apollo does get its hands on these segments of Paramount while leaving the rest, it would certainly back up MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson’s assertion that the remainder of the company “may appear hollow.” All that would remain in this scenario is Paramount’s streamers Paramount+, BET+, and Pluto TV. However, without the intellectual property that Paramount currently owns, there won’t be much to stock the streaming shelves with, and they might not have much value on their own. Paramount has already laid off the staff from its kids streaming platform Noggin, and plans to shut that service down in the coming months.
A sale to Apollo could mean that rights to top Paramount IP could be stripped off one by one and sold to the highest bidder. As a private equity firm instead of a media company, Apollo’s first priority could be to deliver a return on its $11 billion investment by selling its newly-acquired assets to whoever will pay most for them. A future in which Star Trek movies are produced by Warner Bros. Discovery while Trek TV shows are made by Disney or Fox is possible if the sale of Paramount’s TV and movie studio assets to Apollo is executed.
Will Paramount Sale Get Ugly?
A fresh report from Bloomberg indicates that Paramount’s leadership is currently divided on the best way to move forward. Redstone is reportedly leaning toward the Ellisondeal, which would see Paramount sold as one entire company instead of being divided into segments and auctioned off. It would then be merged with Ellison’s production company Skydance Media.
Bloomberg reports that the Paramount board is leery of this offer, especially if Redstone gets better terms than the rest of Paramount’s shareholders in the arrangement. Paramount and its directors have hired their own bankers to search for alternatives that may not involve either Apollo or Skydance.
If Redstone and the Paramount board can’t get on the same page, the decision as to how to move forward with Paramount could get ugly, and public. The current proxy fight Disney is facing would pale in comparison to the headlines generated by a battle between Paramount executives and its majority shareholder.
A sale to Ellison and Skydance doesn’t guarantee that Paramount Global will retain the same structure and attempt to keep all of its assets as-is. Any new owner could make dramatic changes to Paramount’s streamers or its linear networks, but those dramatic changes become much more likely if Paramount is sold in pieces as opposed to all at once.
Paramount Plus
Paramount+ is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 40,000+ TV show episodes from BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Nick Jr. and more. The lineup includes “1883,” “Tulsa King,” “Star Trek: Discovery,” Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob SquarePants,” and “PAW Patrol.” Subscribers can watch the NFL, college football, The Masters, college basketball, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa, Serie A, and NWSL. The service also offers the option to watch your live CBS affiliate. The upgraded ad-free package includes premium movies and shows from Showtime.