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News [NYT] Sony in talks to join a bid to buy Paramount

sagadego20

sagadego20

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Even as Paramount, the home of the "Top Gun" movie franchise and "SpongeBob SquarePants," continues its talks to merge with another media company, Skydance, a new suitor has emerged.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management, an investment firm, have been in discussions about teaming up for a joint bid to acquire Paramount, two people familiar with the situation said Thursday.
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The two companies have not submitted an official bid, as Paramount is still in exclusive conversations with Skydance, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss delicate negotiations. But the potential deal with Skydance has generated significant investor pushback.
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Apollo previously reached out to Paramount about buying the company for at least $26 billion, including debt. But Paramount's board proceeded with its more advanced conversations with Skydance, amid questions about Apollo's financing. A joint bid with Sony would almost certainly reduce those concerns, adding operational experience and additional capital to Apollo's already significant war chest.

Tony Vinciquerra, the chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, has held conversations in the last week with Apollo about teaming up on a bid, the people said. The bid would be an all-cash offer for the outstanding stock in Paramount, in effect taking the company private through a joint venture.
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The terms of the joint bid are still being worked out, and it's possible that Sony and Apollo may not make an offer for Paramount, one of the people said. One structure could have Apollo take a minority stake in the joint venture, with Sony becoming the majority owner and operating the company. At some point, Apollo could cash out its investment, possibly by selling its stake back to Sony.

If Sony prevailed in its bid, the company would most likely operate the Paramount studio as a label within its own media empire, fusing the studio's marketing and distribution arm with its own. It remains to be seen how CBS, one of Paramount's crown jewels, would fit into the combined company along with Paramount's fading cable channels.
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Uggh fuck these corporate buy outs
 
What does paramount has for value for sony to buy them out? Like Nickolodeon is having a slow death. They have a barebone subscription service and that's it... Maybe i'm not getting something right? Like top gun seems like the only thing worth of note.
 
Steve said:
What does paramount has for value for sony to buy them out? Like Nickolodeon is having a slow death. They have a barebone subscription service and that's it... Maybe i'm not getting something right? Like top gun seems like the only thing worth of note.
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Top Gun and Mission Impossible. And I think Cruise has said the next Mission Impossible will be his last, so, they won't even have that soon anymore.
 
Steve said:
What does paramount has for value for sony to buy them out? Like Nickolodeon is having a slow death. They have a barebone subscription service and that's it... Maybe i'm not getting something right? Like top gun seems like the only thing worth of note.
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Paramount is one of the largest historic movie studios and also owns CBS, one of the oldest and biggest American broadcast television networks. The streaming service is probably like the smallest, most insignificant thing about them. Considering Sony already owns Columbia Pictures, if they also bought Paramount they would own a goddamn massive chunk of the American tv/film industry.

Right now the "big five" American studios are Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros, Disney, and Columbia/Sony. This would literally take the "big five" down to four. It would be almost like a Disney-level of industry consolidation.
 
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It's been a pretty open secret that Paramount was looking to be acquired. Still sucks to see. I don't even know who would want to outbid them.
 


Sony, Apollo Make $26 Billion All-Cash Offer for Paramount
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That's 1/3rd of an Activision. Granted, it's not just Sony putting up the money, but Sony also doesn't have Microsoft's massive cash reserves, so this seems like a huge potential purchase price for Paramount.
 
I'm not a fan of consolidation.

But I'm also not against the idea of a streaming service that combines all of the Nickelodeon shows with all of the anime from Crunchyroll.
 
Considering that Crunchyroll is raising their prices I can't say I am too enthused about this going down. But streaming as a platform is trending shittier overall so it isn't too surprising.
 
It seems that the gravity of Paramount's financial predicament hasn't fully sunk in with everyone.

Without a prospective buyer on the horizon, Paramount may be compelled to divest segments of its operations, a move that could unfortunately result in significant job losses..

I understand that "consolidation is bad". However, Paramount's financial situation is also bad. So what's the alternative solution here?
 
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On one hand, consolidation of the market really sucks. On the other hand, Paramounts business has been burning goodwill and with it, it's sales figures, at such an insane rate that it's frankly impressive.

Paramount maneuvered itself in a situation where it's basically either getting bought out or it's going to have to sell serious amounts of IP off to be a profitable operation again. Both ultimately suck for the customer, since buyouts reduce the market overall while selling off IP makes the streaming market even more of a disaster than it already is.

Not sure what the right outcome here is.
 
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I'm glad that the Sony deal isn't happening. Sony owned MGM years back for a bit and it didn't work out well for them so Sony owning Paramount wouldn't be good for them. Sony already owns a major films studio in Columbia Pictures so they have enough as is.

I do think they should take from Sonys books and kill off Paramount Plus. That service is a rock around their neck bleeding money. Do what Sony does and sell their shows and movies to the highest bidder.
 
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