The deal to merge Paramount and Skydance clears two regulatory hurdles. Will an earlier interview with a rival of Donald Trump’s hold it up, though?
The future of Paramount Pictures is looking a lot clearer, with the confirmation that its upcoming merger with Skydance is seeming more and more likely to happen. Over time, the number of suitors for the Paramount Global business was whittled down, and in spite of some tough competition, it looked as though Skydance Media had prevailed last year.
It left some regulatory hurdles that needed to be negotiated, but come the end of last year, Paramount Global – including Paramount Pictures – was set to become part of the growing Skydance empire. Given that Skydance for a long time has been making movies for Paramount, it’s a tiny bit of an eyebrow raiser. But then given the billions of dollars that Skydance Media CEO David Ellison has access to, perhaps not.
Anyway, over the last week, the deal has made its way safely across some important waters. The European Commission rubber-stamped it last week, citing that it saw no significant competition concerns. Then, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in America took its turn, and nodded the deal through as well.
Read more: Paramount Pictures and the 1990s rise of the Sherry movie
It’s not done yet, and thanks to the fact that Paramount owns and operates 28 regional television stations in America, there’s still the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required to give its sign-off.
This has been bogged down in the political waters of NuAmerica, with FCC chair Brendan Carr, an apparent Donald Trump stooge, alleging news distortion against Paramount-owned network CBS, over an interview that was broadcast with Kamala Harris. It’s unthinkable, really, that one single interview could derail the whole deal, but then a lot of things that were unthinkable a month ago have suddenly become thinkable.
Still, it seems the best way to get things done in America at the moment is to cosy up to Trump, as we’ve seen with Facebook, Amazon, Disney – and, most recently, Airbnb.
More on the Paramount/Skydance merger in due course.
