Paramount investor rips Shari Redstone’s deal to sell media giant to Skydance: ‘Detrimental to the company’s value ‘
NY Post
A Paramount Global investor slammed Shari Redstone over her deal to sell the company to Skydance Media, claiming the heiress is attempting to enrich herself at the expense of regular shareholders.
In a Monday letter, Matrix Asset Advisors pleaded with Paramount’s board to reject Skydance’s bid to merge with the media giant, calling it “detrimental” to the company’s value, and demanding that it reconsider a $26 billion bid from private equity firm Apollo Global.
A deal between Paramount and Skydance— which has produced blockbusters like “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning,” “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” and “Top Gun: Maverick” for Paramount, could see the media conglomerate acquire the independent studio in an all-stock transaction valued at around $5 billion.
Under the terms being discussed, Redstone and her National Amusements, which controls Paramount -owner of Hollywood studio Paramount Pictures, CBS, MTV and Comedy Central — would receive over $2 billion in cash in the first step of the transaction, according to reports.
Matrix, which currently owns 355,445 Paramount shares and has over $1 billion in assets under management, said the “vast majority of shareholders would not receive a similar premium and would be forced to finance a speculative investment in Skydance in a transaction significantly dilutive to shareholder value.”
“Overall, this transaction, as contemplated, would be detrimental to the company’s value and contrary to the Board’s fiduciary duty,” Matrix said, noting that it would be a “home run” for Redstone at the expense of the rest of the company’s non-controlling shareholders.
