By Daybreak Chmielewski
(Reuters) – A particular committee of the Paramount International board charged with evaluating gives for the corporate met Saturday morning, although rival bidders for the studio are awaiting phrase on subsequent steps.
Paramount ended its unique negotiations with Skydance Media with out a deal on Friday, permitting the particular committee to entertain different gives for the house of “Mission: Impossible” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Paramount’s particular committee has but to contact Sony (NYSE:) Photos Leisure, which, along with personal fairness agency Apollo International Administration (NYSE:), despatched a letter on Wednesday expressing curiosity in buying Paramount, in accordance with two sources conversant in the matter.
In the meantime David Ellison’s Skydance, which has been engaged for months in deal talks with Paramount and its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, is evaluating its choices, Reuters beforehand reported.
A spokesperson for the particular committee couldn’t be reached for remark.
Paramount, like different studios, has been struggling torecover from final 12 months’s months-long strikes by Hollywoodwriters and actors, a mushy promoting market and falling cablesubscriptions in america that has eroded revenue forits TV enterprise.
Its streaming service, Paramount+, additionally trails rivals suchas Netflix (NASDAQ:) and Disney+ in subscriber numbers – eventhough Redstone had hoped the merger of CBS and Viacom in 2019would assist the mixed firm, later renamed Paramount International,compete higher.
Shares of Paramount have fallen greater than 65% since then,dropping greater than $14 billion in market worth.