Paramount Global has agreed to merge with Skydance Media to form a new joint enterprise known as “New Paramount.”
The deal, which is valued at $28 billion USD (about $38 billion CAD), will see Skydance’s David Ellison become chairman and CEO and former NBCUniversal chief executive Jeff Shell take over as president.
Paramount is best known for owning the likes of CBS, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and the Paramount+ streaming service, while Skydance’s catalogue includes the likes of the Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, Top Gun and Terminator film franchises. The merger builds on a long-running partnership between Paramount and Skydance to co-produce and co-finance films since 2009.
Beyond that, Paramount is one of the biggest and oldest companies in Hollywood, having been established in 1914 as the Paramount Pictures Corporation. However, the entertainment giant has struggled over the past decade, with Paramount Global shares falling by more than 75 percent in the last five years. Per Bloomberg, Paramount has racked up $14.6 billion USD (about $19.9 billion CAD) in debt as of March, which it attributes, in part, to streaming losses and a decline in the broadcast and cable TV business.
Therefore, Paramount is looking at the merger to improve its financial outlook. Paramount’s non-executive chair Shari Redstone, whose father played a major role in growing the company, said “Skydance knows Paramount well and has a clear strategic vision and the resources to take it to its next stage of growth.”
Paramount and Skydance expect the deal to be completed in the first half of 2025. It remains to be seen what changes, if any, this will bring to the company’s content offerings, especially in the streaming and theatrical spaces.
Image credit: Skydance/Paramount
Source: Skydance/Paramount
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