Paramount saw a whopping 13% gain in stock price last week off the back of rumors that it could find itself on the sales block at some point in the 2024 fiscal year. Our resident entertainment attorney in USA, Brandon Blake of Blake & Wang P.A., analyzes what we’re seeing for us.
Skydance Deal Speculation
It is expected that we will see some further mergers and acquisition action in the general entertainment space as we go into 2024 and 2025 with significant signs of industry recovery, but a potential over-saturation in entities, particularly in the streaming space. Paramount, in particular its Paramount+ service, has been at the core of several recent rumors as an ideal ‘target’ for acquisition.
This has been strengthened in recent weeks with speculation that RedBird Capital, in conjunction with Skydance Media, could be eying Sheri Redstone’s controlling stake in the Hollywood conglomerate. While neither entity has rushed to confirm these rumors, they’re likely behind the recent stock boost.
Rising Stock Price
On the back of these rumors, even without much confirmation from the involved entities, Paramount saw a 13% boost to its stock price, raising it by $1.91 to $16.94 at its peak. Should the Skydance rumors prove true, this would significantly boost its growing profile. From a humble start as Paramount co-producer, Skydance has managed to reinvent itself in recent years into a diversified studio covering everything from animation to sports and even some big-budget films and series with a general sci-fi and action focus.
This stock boost will be well-received by Paramount investors, as they’ve taken an overall share price hit in 2023 with ailing streaming and pay-tv subscriber numbers. While it is still too early to take the news as fact, we do expect to see some movement on the overall Paramount matter in 2024- highly likely including shuttering the loss-leading Paramount+ and potentially selling off of both Pluto TV and some of their linear channels.
