Paramount Global appears to have finally found a buyer, and of the long list of interested parties it has attracted over the past six months, it is Skydance Media that has reached a preliminary agreement to buy the company, three sources familiar with the matter said. Reuters today (July 3).
The two companies are no strangers to each other, having previously collaborated on the production of films such as the action film Top Gun: Maverick and sci-fi favorite Star Trek Into Darkness. But before you get too excited about the potential merger and what it means for Paramount’s streaming service, there’s still a chance it could fall through.
The Wall Street Journal reported when it originally broke the story that the deal also included a 45-day period during which bidders could still submit bids, which is why recent reports like this one have emerged from CNBC That said, potential bidders like Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast’s NBCUniversal are back in the picture.
Negotiations for a potential Paramax Plus fell through in February, but were picked up again in April by Peacock, which was later joined by Sony, so there are still plenty of suitors in the running. The companies have until August 17th to make alternative offers under the grace period, at which point we’ll likely hear whether the Skydance deal goes through.
How would Skydance change Paramount Plus?
Paramount Global is home to iconic film studios behind classics like Titanic, Indiana Jones, And The godfatherthe broadcaster CBS, cable networks such as MTV Entertainment and Nickelodeon and of course the streaming service, which includes Paramount Plus and the FAST service Pluto TV.
By joining Skydance, Paramount gains access to its television ventures, which have worked on shows like Grace and Frankie, Reach And Foundationinteractive entertainment such as virtual reality content, and its animation studio, which Luck. Could this mean we’ll see it expand its animation division on the back of a potential deal? Combining both companies’ smarts in this area would be a profitable move, but nothing is certain.
It could also happen that a deal is reached that does not include all of Paramount Global’s current assets. A day before the announcement of the tentative deal between Paramount and Skydance, Bloomberg reported that Paramount executives are again in talks about selling the assets of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network, including the streaming service BET Plus.
Nothing is finalized yet, so there’s still time to enjoy the best Paramount Plus movies and the best Paramount Plus shows. As a younger media company, Skydance can save the old Hollywood company Paramount by widening the brim of its fedora hat (just as Indie could in Temple of Doom)? Or will it be the tragic sinking ship we saw in Titanic?