Paramount Talked Merger With Warner Bros. Discovery for Months
A new report indicates Paramount discussed a merger with a dozen potential partners before opting for Skydance Media.
An ex post facto examination of Paramount Global’s multitudinous merger discussions has revealed some fascinating results. According to a new report from Bloomberg, Paramount engaged with 12 alternative potential merger allies before settling on a deal to combine with Skydance Media, which is currently moving through its various logistical steps.
Key Details:
- Paramount engaged with Warner Bros. Discovery for months before moving on thanks to a lack of a concrete offer.
- Comcast was also involved in talks with Paramount, though it never pursued a full combination of the two companies.
- Paramount’s merger with Skydance is expected to close completely in the coming year.
The report from Bloomberg cites a court filing from Paramount detailing the number of suitors it courted after deciding to put itself up for sale in 2023. Paramount lettered these interested parties A through L, and Warner Bros. Discovery was Party A on its list.
The filing states that Paramount and WBD talked about a full-on merger for months, a deal that was first reported to be in the works in December 2023. Talks continued, but by late February the Paramount special committee tasked with considering merger opportunities broke off active talks since WBD had not made a firm offer.
WBD CEO David Zaslav kept lines of communication open until April, but by then it was clear that Paramount had moved on to other opportunities. Those possibilities included a transaction with Comcast, though when that company’s chief executive Brian Roberts met with Paramount he made it clear he was more interested in a licensing deal or a streaming joint venture as opposed to a merger. The Streamable speculated that Comcast might pursue some of Paramount’s assets last summer when the company was considering breaking up its holdings, and that speculation came to fruition at least in theory.
The report also indicates that Paramount was not totally convinced by the $11 billion offer made by the private equity firm Apollo Global Management in March. Apollo never offered a specific share price despite the valuation it assigned to Paramount and never offered concrete details about their proposal.
Eventually, Paramount decided on a two-step deal that will see Skydance buy National Amusements Inc., the holding company that controls Paramount’s voting stock. Once that’s done, Paramount and Skydance will be merged together, a process that’s expected to be completed by the first half of 2025.
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