Mergers and acquisitions never happen in isolation. The conditions that made a merger of, for example, Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery a good idea for investors will still exist in the market, and also such a merger can make others in the same industry consider their position, sometimes driving a response. So further consolidation was to be expected, and now it is Legendary Entertainment who are said to be interested in acquiring Lionsgate.
Legendary expressed an interest in Lionsgate a while ago, but nothing much happened. Now, according to a report at Bloomberg, they have submitted an official offer.
Legendary is kinda a big deal. Their name is at the start of some recent massive movies such as Dune and Minecraft Movie.
Lionsgate will disclose quarterly earnings at the start of next month, and the speculation has already sent their shares up 15% to push the market cap to $3.6 billion. Legendary’s interest is likely driven by a desire to unlock the ability to distribute their own movies, rather than end up being leveraged in negotiations by the sheer size of the newly created Skydance.
Lionsgate also bring John Wick, The Hunger Games, and recent box office hit Michael to the table along with a pipeline that includes another Rambo adventure, and Mel Gibson’s two-part Christ sequel.
