Technology entrepreneur David Ellison has reached a preliminary agreement to buy the Redstone family holding company, National Amusements Inc., which would give his company Skydance Media control over Paramount Global, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment.
Details of the deal were not immediately available, but the move represents another dramatic change of direction by media mogul Shari Redstone, who controls National Amusements and its 77% voting shares in Paramount Global.
Redstone has long been impressed by Ellison’s ambition and success as a producer in Hollywood, but last month she abruptly called off a two-phase deal Ellison had proposed for NAI and Paramount. Undeterred, Ellison and his group pressed on to prevail in their monthslong fight to gain control of Paramount in a deal that marks a new chapter for the long-troubled media company that is the parent of one of Hollywood’s oldest film studios.
Under the previous proposed deal, Skydance and its financiers had planned to pay more than $2 billion for National Amusements. Once the company’s debt was paid off, the sum would have netted the Redstone family about $1.7 billion. The new deal amounts to about $50 million more for the Redstone family than previously anticipated, or about $1.75 billion, one of the people familiar with the matter said.
To make the deal more palatable to Redstone, Skydance and its backers, RedBird Capital and private equity firm KKR, also agreed in recent days to tougher provisions to protect the company from shareholder lawsuits, this person said.
The deal was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The deal will now go to a special committee of Paramount's board of directors for approval.
Paramount Global did not immediately comment.
