Shares of Paramount Global climbed as much as 14% during Friday’s trading session following reports that Skydance Media CEO David Ellison and RedBird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale are “kicking the tires” on acquiring the media conglomerate’s assets via its parent company National Amusements’ majority stake.
National Amusements owns 77.3% of Paramount Global’s Class A (voting) common stock and 5.2% of its Class B common stock.
According to Puck, there is “no official process or dealbook, but NDAs have been signed, and a small group is said to be working up the numbers.” The outlet added that Paramount non-executive chairwoman Shari Redstone is also talking to others about potential deals.