Sony Pictures, Apollo Offer to Buy Paramount for $26 Billion in Cash

In the latest twist in Paramount Global‘s M&A saga, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management reportedly have made a bid to take Paramount private with an all-cash buyout offer of $26 billion.

Sony and private-equity giant Apollo submitted an offer letter Wednesday to Paramount Global, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The reported bid comes as Paramount Global board’s special committee established to consider M&A proposals is evaluating the best and final offer from Skydance Media to merge Paramount and Skydance, while keeping Paramount Global public. Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global, is known to prefer consummating a deal with David Ellison’s Skydance, whose bid is backed by RedBird Capital Partners and KKR.

A rep for the Paramount Global board’s special committee declined to comment. Reps for Apollo and Sony Entertainment didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

It’s not clear how Paramount’s board will proceed on the Sony-Apollo proposal, having rejected previous overtures from the private-equity firm. If it happens, the combination of Sony Pictures with Paramount Pictures would likely result in mass layoffs — and knock the number of major Hollywood studios from five to four, after Disney took over 20th Century. Sony Corp., which acquired Columbia Pictures in 1990 for $3.5 billion, is the largest studio operator in the industry that does not have a broad-scale…