Sony Pictures and Apollo: 26 billion to buy Paramount

Paramount Global It continues to search for a buyer to assume its debt of 14.6 billion. Among the contenders, a merger with Skydance Media or a promising purchase of Sony Pictures and the Apollo background worth 26,000 million euros.

The investment fund Apollo, which today already has its first steps in the world of audiovisuals with the ownership of Cox Media Group, has made a first firm offer together with Sony Pictures Entertainment for the acquisition of Paramount Global for approximately 26 billion dollars. The interest has been made manifest through a letter signed by Tony Vinciquerra, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Aaron Sobel, one of Apollo's partners.

The move comes after Paramount has openly and passively expressed its willingness to purchase its business, although the offer may be a measure of pressure on Skydance Media, responsible for sagas like Top Gun: Maverick who have been negotiating a merger with the Hollywood studio for months. Media such as The New York Times affirm that Sony's hypothetical purchase of Paramount would make the Japanese technology company the largest shareholder of the company, starting a new super studio with sagas as iconic as Spiderman or the saga of Mission: Impossible.

The purchase would not only change the game board with respect to film production, as it is necessary to take into consideration the eventual future of CBS, Paramount's American television conglomerate. The main limitation in this regard is that US regulatory authorities restrict foreign ownership of television networks, which will force Sony to be creative in its ownership of CBS after the operation or leave it out of it.

The offer from Sony Pictures and Apollo comes at a turbulent time for Paramount, who this week saw the farewell of Bob Bakish. Its until now CEO had positioned itself internally against a possible merger with Skydance, which has led Paramount to temporarily operate with a triumvirate of CEOs: George Cheeks, head of CBS; Chris McCarthy, responsible for the Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios area, and Brian Robbins, head of Paramount.