©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The Paramount Pictures studios logo is pictured after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) said it had reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios in Los Angeles, California, United States, on September 24, 2023. REUTERS/David Swanson/File Phot
(Reuters) – Private equity firm Apollo Global Management (NYSE:) has offered $11 billion for Paramount Global’s film studio, Paramount Pictures, a person familiar with the offer said, adding to takeover interest in the media conglomerate.
Paramount shares rose 10% after the Wall Street Journal first reported the news.
Apollo had also approached a special committee formed by Paramount regarding a possible acquisition or asset purchase, Axios News reported in early March.
Paramount Global declined to comment and Apollo could not immediately be reached for comment.
Paramount Pictures, which has a large library of films including “The Godfather,” “Star Trek” and “Indiana Jones,” has attracted the interest of many suitors over the years. However, Shari Redstone, the media conglomerate’s controlling shareholder through her stake in parent company National Amusements, has been reluctant to part ways with the studio.
National Amusements directly or indirectly owns 77% of Paramount’s voting stock, giving it control of the company’s century-old movie studio and television networks.
In addition to Paramount, National Amusements controls CBS, the Nickelodeon and Comedy Central cable networks, and also owns 800 movie screens in the United States.
The deterioration of the global entertainment business has wiped billions of dollars of value from the media company, born from the hard-fought reunion of CBS and Viacom in 2019. The Redstone family considers the media asset undervalued by investors and is exploring its options.
Media entrepreneur Byron Allen had submitted a $30 billion offer for Paramount Global, including debt and equity, Allen Media Group said in an emailed statement to Reuters in late January.
It also piqued the interest of Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, who made a preliminary offer to buy National Amusements, the Redstone family’s holding company, as a way to take control of Paramount Global, Bloomberg News reported in January.