Apollo Global Management, a major private equity firm, has made an $11 billion offer to acquire Paramount Pictures, according to a published report.
Apollo Global has offered $11 billion to buy film and television studio company Paramount Global, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. Obviously, this will not include CBS, Paramount Global’s cable networks, or the streaming business that includes Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
It’s unclear how the calculations for Apollo’s reported bid play out, as that price is larger than Paramount Global’s entire market cap ($7.3 billion as of March 19). Paramount Global shares rose more than 11% on Wednesday according to the magazine report.
A representative for Paramount Global declined to comment. An Apollo Global spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
In recent months, Paramount Global has been the target of several different merger and acquisition scenarios. Skydance Media CEO David Ellison has been in talks with Shari Redstone, whose National Amusements Inc., a controlling stake in Paramount Global, about buying NAI. Byron Allen’s media group has made an unsolicited $30 billion takeover bid for Paramount Global, although it remains unclear who its financial partners are. Paramount Chairman Bob Bakish and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav in December briefly discussed the idea of merging WBD and Paramount Global, but that idea was shelved.
Last month, Paramount Global announced that it would lay off about 800 employees worldwide, an estimated 3% of its headcount. “These adjustments will help us build on our momentum and execute on our strategic vision for next year — and I firmly believe we have a lot to be excited about,” Bakish wrote in a Feb. 13 memo to employees. The company said it expects to collect $1 billion for layoffs and content delisting in the first quarter of 2024; Of this amount, approximately $800 million will be allocated to programming.