Another suitor lines up for Paramount, with The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen next to put some billions on the table.
In today’s game of ‘which billionaire fancies buying a movie studio’, along comes another contender in the race to purchase Paramount Pictures.
It’s looking increasingly likely that the studio will be under fresh ownership by this time next year, with Shari Redstone believed to be selling her stake in parent company National Amusements. That’s led to a few different contenders jockeying for position, and the latest to join the field is a man called Byron Allen.
Allen is the owner of The Weather Channel, so can presumably forecast which way all of this is going. He also owns Allen Media Group, and it’s being reported that he’s submitted a $30bn offer for Paramount Global, including its debt and its equity.
It’s believed, according to a Deadline report, that Allen and his company are – get this – not actually interested in the Paramount film studio and its intellectual property. Instead, he wants Paramount+ and its television stations too. The plan would be to sell the actual film studio on.
It’s all a bit Monopoly money and trading at this stage. Just with, y’know, actual human beings and their jobs instead of pieces trotting around a board. Never mind too the heritage of what you’re actually buying.
Already, there had been suggestions that Warner Bros was interested in completing an acquisition for Paramount, although word of that seems to have cooled in recent weeks. Instead, the running favourite was believed to be (billionaire) David Ellison and his Skydance group. Skydance grew in part by selling its movies to Paramount, so it’s quite a role reversal there.
Whoever wins this particular race, expect a press release that’ll hide away a line talking about ‘synergies’ and ‘efficiencies’. Which, to real people not actually trying to hide their intentions is not particularly subtle code for ‘job losses’ and ‘disposing of human beings’.
As we hear more, we’ll let you know. We’ll try and be in a better mood when we write the story up.
