Paramount shares rose as much as 12% during stock market hours Wednesday in the wake of The Wall Street Journal’s report that Apollo Global Management bid $11 billion to buy the company’s film and television studios.
With Wednesday’s trading now at a close, the stock purchase price sits at $12.51 per share. The market capitalization rose to $8.6 billion for the company, up from its prior $7.7 billion market cap.
Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm, reportedly reached out to a special board committee at the media conglomerate earlier in March to discuss buyout opportunities or to purchase some of Paramount Global’s assets, such as CBS, Paramount+, Paramount Pictures or the company’s cable networks like MTV and Nickelodeon.
The Apollo bid follows offers from David Ellison’s Skydance Media as well as Byron Allen, whose offers both arrived in January within a week of each other. Allen’s bid totaled to $30 billion including the assumption of debt under Allen Media Group. The offer outlined company acquisition for $28.58 per each voting share and $21.53 per each non-voting share.
The private equity firm has an investment history with entertainment companies like CKx, owner of “American Idol,” which it purchased in 2011. It has also previously held stakes in Cox Media Group, Legendary Entertainment, Sirius Satellite Radio, Barnes & Noble and Redbox. Apollo purchased Yahoo Inc. from Verizon in 2021.
In December 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav held a meeting with Paramount CEO Bob Bakish to discuss a merger of the two companies, but talks stopped in February. S&P then put Paramount on a negative credit watch towards the end of February.
Paramount announced layoffs in February that would affect 800 staffers, or 3% of the company’s workforce. Other cost-cutting measures included the consolidation of development and current operations, forcing the exit of some senior executives.
