Apollo Is Said to Offer $11 Billion for Paramount’s Film Studio

(Bloomberg) -- Apollo Global Management Inc. offered to buy Paramount Global’s Hollywood studio for about $11 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

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The price exceeds the current stock market value of the company, which has two classes of shares collectively worth more than $8 billion. The nonvoting Class B shares of Paramount rose 12% to $12.51 at the close in New York. Paramount also has about $15 billion in debt.

Spokespeople for Apollo and Paramount declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported on the offer price earlier Wednesday.

A sale of just the studio would amount to a breakup of Paramount Global, a media giant that also owns a stable of TV networks including CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon.

The Redstone family, which controls the company, doesn’t favor a piecemeal sale, viewing the studios, networks and its Paramount+ streaming TV service as better kept together, according to people familiar with their thinking.

Board Chair Shari Redstone and her representatives have instead been weighing a sale of her family holding company, National Amusements Inc., which controls Paramount, to independent producer David Ellison. His company Skydance Media, a partner with the company in films like Top Gun: Maverick, would then merge with Paramount. Ellison is the son of billionaire Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corp.

That transaction is complex, however, and other Paramount investors might object to the terms. Company executives said at a March 6 investor conference that their objective is to “create value for all of our shareholders.”

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