Skydance Media‘s $8 billion agreement to merge with Paramount Global expired April 7 as the parties await FCC approval. Under the terms of the pact, the deadline for the agreement to close has been automatically extended for another 90 days.
If by the end of that 90-day period (July 7, 2025) the deal still hasn’t closed, it will be subject to a second 90-day extension. The automatic extensions are triggered in the event that “all of the conditions of the closing, except those relating to regulatory approvals, have been satisfied or waived,” per the companies’ deal.
On July 7, 2024, after months of on-and-off negotiations, Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone clinched a deal to merge the media conglomerate with Skydance.
The SEC approved the Skydance-Paramount deal in February. That same month, the European Commission gave it the thumbs-up, noting that the transaction does not pose any significant anti-competitive concerns.
But the FCC has not yet cleared the merger. And there’s no formal date by which the FCC must issue a decision in the matter.
What’s the holdup? Some background on the situation: Prior to the 2024 election, President Trump filed a lawsuit against CBS News over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, alleged the Harris interview was deceptively edited. Trump has demanded $20 billion in damages. Last month, Paramount and CBS moved to dismiss Trump’s suit as “an affront to the First Amendment.”
Republican FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, has said Trump’s “60 Minutes” lawsuit would likely will be a factor during the FCC’s review of the Skydance-Paramount merger.
And last month, Carr claimed he will block M&A deals for media companies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs — as he helps execute Trump’s aggressive anti-DEI agenda. Carr has directed the FCC to probe DEI practices as Disney/ABC and Comcast/NBCUniversal, claiming he is concerned the media companies are promoting “invidious forms of DEI.” Paramount, meanwhile, in February said it was changing some of its DEI programs to comply with the Trump administration’s directives.
The Skydance-Paramount deal has an enterprise value estimated at $28 billion and gives Skydance an implied valuation of $4.75 billion. Shareholders of NAI will receive $1.75 billion and the assumption of NAI’s debt (for $2.4 billion total enterprise value) while Paramount Global Class B common shareholders will receive $15 per share. About $6 billion of the money to fund the deal is coming from the Ellison family (i.e. Oracle founder Larry Ellison) and about $2 billion is from RedBird Capital Partners.
Last October, Skydance submitted an updated filing with the FCC to reflect that David Ellison, Skydance’s CEO, will hold 100% percent of the Ellison family’s voting interests in the newly combined Skydance-Paramount and not Larry Ellison, as previous documents indicated.
