Paramount Stock Sinks As Shari Redstone Kills Skydance Deal

Paramount Global shares have fallen further after Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount through her family's holding company National Amusements (NAI), ended merger talks with Skydance Media, NAI confirmed in a statement, Alexandra Canal reported for Yahoo Finance.

The development came as a surprise considering an independent special committee of Paramount's board recently recommended the economics of the Skydance deal after months of back-and-forth talks. I Photo: Paramount Pictures Facebook

The stock was over 2% lower in pre-market trading, after sinking nearly 8% on Tuesday on the news.

As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Redstone will now likely pursue a sale of just NAI, rather than attempting to merge Paramount into another company. Hollywood producer Steven Paul has reportedly expressed interest, along with media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr.

The latest offer, valued at a sweetened $8 billion, included Shari Redstone selling National Amusements' controlling stake in Paramount for around $2 billion, according to CNBC.

National Amusements owns approximately 10% of Paramount's equity capital value and maintains 77% of voting shares.

It's a surprising development, considering an independent special committee of Paramount's board recently recommended the economics of the Skydance deal after months of back-and-forth talks.

The Journal said the committee was slated to vote on the Paramount merger with Skydance on Tuesday afternoon.

National Amusements said it was not able "to reach mutually acceptable terms regarding the potential transaction with Skydance Media for the acquisition of a controlling stake in NAI."