Paramount Will, Ultimately, Dance in the Sky

David Ellison’s Skydance is buying Redstone’s National Amusements and merging with Paramount Global.

It came true! Paramount Global is going to merge with Skydance, meaning our long national nightmare of not knowing who will control fan-favorite streaming service Paramount+ is over. In unrelated news, expect pigs to fly. Shari Redstone, current owner of National Amusements, which owns a controlling stake in Paramount, is selling National Amusements to David Ellison’s Skydance Media, which will then merge with Paramount, according to CNN. Despite weeks (upon weeks) of discussion, the announcement comes as a surprise, given that the merger ended with no deal just a few weeks back. Skydance is investing $8 billion in Paramount with $2.4 billion going to the purchase of National Amusements. But don’t assume this is over just yet … Paramount still has 45 days to shop around for a better offer, though the breakup fee would amount to $400 million, per Variety. Crazier things have certainly happened — in the process of this deal alone.

• [CNN]

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