It’s giving love triangle

A potential major media deal is experiencing more drama than Succession.

The exclusive negotiating window between Paramount Global, which is controlled by Shari Redstone, and Skydance Media, which is controlled by the Ellison family (Oracle), ended on Friday.

This means Paramount is back on the open market – and weighing its options. The company, home to the Mission: Impossible franchise and streaming hits like Yellowjackets, is also considering a joint offer from Sony and Apollo, which emerged last week.

The offers (for context, Paramount’s current market cap is ~$9 billion):

• Skydance Media: To pay ~$2 billion for Redstone’s shares (and controlling interest), then merge the two companies together. The combined company would receive a cash infusion of $3 billion to pay down debt or buy back stock.
• Sony and Apollo: $26 billion in cash, including the assumption of debt.

Redstone and Hollywood appear to be psyched about Skydance – but nearly every Paramount investor and Wall Street seem to be on Sony and Apollo’s side.

More deal-drama tea: Paramount CEO Bob Bakish, who was reportedly soft on the Skydance deal, departed the company last week, joining four board members who had also exited the company over the previous month (three of whom were on an independent committee tasked with ensuring any merger deal would benefit all of the company’s shareholders).

👀 Looking ahead… A special committee of Paramount’s board voted over the weekend to engage in non-exclusive talks with Sony/Apollo. Skydance is also reportedly still interested in getting a deal done.

+Dive deeper: A Media Heiress’s Bid to Sell Set Off Mayhem Inside Paramount.