Shari Redstone reaches preliminary deal to sell controlling stake in Paramount to Skydance Media for $1.75B

Shari Redstone changed her mind, again! The media heiress  reached a preliminary agreement to sell her controlling stake in Paramount Global to  Skydance Media – just weeks after she walked away from a deal between the two sides, according to multiple reports Tuesday.Redstone, who controls the entertainment giant through her 77% stake in family firm National Amusements, informed a special committee of the Paramount Global board  she had reached a deal, two sources told Reuters.The special committee is now evaluating whether to combine Paramount, home of the namesake studio, CBS and Nickelodeon, with Skydance – run by tech heir David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.Skydance will pay $1.75 billion for National Amusements as part of the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported the news earlier on Tuesday.The independent studio – which has produced films like “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” and “Top Gun: Maverick” for Paramount – and National Amusements have also agreed to a 45-day “go-shop period” in which other interested Paramount bidders can make offers for the company, the Journal reported.Paramount, National Amusements and Skydance declined to comment.Paramount owns the namesake film studio, CBS, MTV and Nickelodeon as well as its streaming service.The company has struggled with a cable business in decline, a hefty debt load and a costly build-out of its streaming business. Shares of Paramount popped 9% in after-hours trading on the Skydance news.The deal comes after Redstone had abruptly ended talks with David Ellison in June, killing the potential sale of a controlling stake in Paramount Global to the independent studio.Under the terms of that deal, Skydance would have bought National Amusements for around $1.7 billion in cash and would have provided $4.5 billion to buy out a certain number of Paramount’s nonvoting shares and non-Redstone voting shares, the Journal reported.Skyda...