Paramount bidders await word from special committee evaluating options

By Dawn Chmielewski

(Reuters) – A special committee of Paramount Global’s board tasked with evaluating bids for the company met on Saturday morning, although rival bidders for the studio are awaiting news on next steps.

Paramount ended its exclusive negotiations with Skydance Media without a deal on Friday, allowing the special committee to consider other offers for the home of “Mission: Impossible” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

Paramount’s special committee has not yet contacted Sony Pictures Entertainment, which, along with private equity firm Apollo Global Management, sent a letter on Wednesday expressing interest in acquiring Paramount, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, David Ellison’s Skydance, which has been involved in deal talks with Paramount and its controlling shareholder Shari Redstone for months, is weighing its options, Reuters previously reported.

A spokesperson for the special committee could not be reached for comment.

Paramount, like other studios, has struggled to recover from months-long strikes by Hollywood writers and actors last year, a weak advertising market and a drop in U.S. cable subscriptions that eroded its profits. your TV business.

Its streaming service, Paramount+, also lags behind rivals like Netflix and Disney+ in subscriber numbers — although Redstone hoped the merger of CBS and Viacom in 2019 would help the combined company, later renamed Paramount Global, compete better.

Paramount shares have fallen more than 65% since then, losing more than $14 billion in market value.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)