The long saga over the sale of Paramount Global will draw to a close next month, with the company’s merger with Skydance due to close on 7th August.
Once the deal closes, the new company will own the UK’s 5 (Channel 5) as well as Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, BET and Comedy Central.
The new entity is expected to be led by Skydance CEO David Ellison with former NBCUniversal executive Jeff Shell as president.
Rumours that Paramount Global was up for sale first surfaced in April 2024, when Sony looked to muscle in on the company’s talks with Skydance. That led to the ousting of CEO Bob Bakish after he reportedly opposed a deal with Skydance.
Sony and Apollo Management flirted with the idea of acquiring Paramount, submitting a $26 billion bid for the company, which never really got off the ground.
At the end of May last year, Skydance re-entered the fray with a new proposal, but that was rejected by Paramount’s main shareholder, Shari Redstone. The two sides finally agreed a deal in July 2024 with the process now expected to complete next week.
