Shari Redstone Ends Talks With Skydance About Paramount Merger

After more than six months of on-again-off-again talks, Shari Redstone has ended negotations with David Ellison‘s Skydance Media about a prospective merger with Paramount Global, per a Wall Street Journal report.

Redstone, Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder through National Amusements Inc., is instead looking to pursue deals with parties interested in acquiring NAI, per the Journal.

Reps for Skydance Media declined to comment. An NAI spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Redstone, daughter of late media mogul Sumner Redstone, and Ellison, son of Oracle founder and megabillionaire Larry Ellison, were ultimately unable to reach an agreement on the terms of a complex transaction that would have turned over control of Paramount Global to Skydance and its private-equity partners, RedBird Capital Partners and KKR.

Amid the chaos and uncertainty over the bid by Skydance and its team, others have emerged to potentially scope out an acquisition of National Amusements alone (instead of trying to construct a deal that also comprises Paramount Global). Those include Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Bain Capital, which are considering a bid of up to $2.5 billion for NAI, as well as producer and filmmaker Steven Paul, who was behind the “Baby Geniuses” movie franchise.

Skydance’s last offer was approved by Paramount Global’s special committee established to evaluate M&A offers earlier this month, and it was…