The Wall Street Journal is saying that talks to merge Shari Redstone’s National Amusements aka Viacom, the company that owns Paramount and CBS, have “stopped.” It sounds like Redstone wanted Skydance to provide legal protection in case minority shareholders decided to sue to block the merger.
It was previously reported David Ellison‘s company was set to pay $8 billion to gain control of Paramount. We all presumed it was going to happen, but in a sudden twist, it’s been halted. Bad news for Paramount. They desperately needed a deal.
So, what’s next for Paramount? Do they go back to the Sony deal? If that doesn’t happen, then the company could be broken up and sold for next to nothing. I’ll have more on this story as it develops. There’s surely another twist coming our way.