According to a report in The New York Times, Sony Pictures Entertainment and investment firm Apollo Global Management are teaming up to look at a joint bid to acquire Paramount.
They are in discussions, but the report says an official bid has not been tabled Paramount themselves are still in exclusive talks with their own long-term partners at Skydance, so there may be some developments there coming down the track.
Apollo had previously had high-level conversations with Paramount about taking on the company and its debt for more than $26 billion. Paramount did not take those conversations forward due to the ongoing Skydance situation, and a question mark over Apollo’s financing.
Would a joint bid with Sony help address the finance questions, while bringing good industry experience to the table in the form of the studio?
According to the report, Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra is looking at an all-cash offer. This would essentially take Paramount private, off any stock listings.
So could the home of Star Trek, Top Gun, Mission: Impossible, and Transformers merge with the world of Spider-Man, Ghostbusters, Jumanji, and the Karate Kid?
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