Paramount’s controlling shareholder reaches new deal with Skydance Media By Reuters

(Reuters) -Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, has reached a new deal with Skydance Media, just weeks after the two sides ended negotiations, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Shares of Paramount were up 9% in after-hours trading on the news Skydance has reached a deal to acquire National Amusements, which holds the Redstone family’s controlling stake in Paramount.

National Amusements informed a special committee of the Paramount Global board it had reached a deal, two of the sources said.

The special committee is now evaluating whether to combine Paramount, home of the namesake studio, CBS and Nickelodeon, with Skydance.

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.

Paramount declined to comment, while National Amusements and Skydance did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

The deal comes after Redstone had abruptly ended talks with David Ellison’s Skydance Media in June, killing the potential sale of a controlling stake in Paramount Global to the independent studio.

National Amusements owns movie theaters in the United States, Britain and Latin America, and holds the Redstone family’s 77% of Paramount’s class A voting stock.