Paramount's Shari Redstone shelves potential merger deal with Skydance

(Reuters) - Paramount Global's majority shareholder Shari Redstone has abruptly ended talks for a potential merger with David Ellison's production company Skydance Media, effectively killing the deal that was in the works for several months.

Redstone, the daughter of late media tycoon Sumner Redstone, was widely expected to sell her family's stake to Ellison as part of a $2.25 billion deal for the family's holding company, National Amusements. It was one element of a complex $8 billion transaction that would have resulted in the merger of Paramount and Skydance.

Here are some of the main events leading up to the deal talks falling through:

Year Events

December CBS Corp and Viacom merge to form ViacomCBS,

2019 combining media mogul Sumner Redstone's media units

13 years after a split. ViacomCBS would be later

renamed as Paramount Global

ViacomCBS acquires a 49% stake in film studio

Miramax from BeIN Media Group for $375 million

September ViacomCBS rebrands a CBS streaming service as

2020 Paramount+ and launches it in international markets

Sells CNET Media Group to Red Ventures

for $500 million

November ViacomCBS agrees to sell CBS Studio Center for

2021 $1.85 billion to private firms

February ViacomCBS changes its name to Paramount Global

2022

December Chief executives of Warner Bros Discovery and

2023 Paramount reportedly in talks over a potential deal

between the two companies

January Skydance CEO David Ellison reportedly explores an

2024 all-cash bid to acquire Paramount parent National

Amusements

January Media entrepreneur Byron Allen submits a $30

2024 billion offer for Paramount, including debt and

equity

March 2024 India's Reliance Industries agrees to buy

Paramount's entire 13.01% stake in local

entertainment network Viacom18 Media for about $517

million

March 2024 Apollo Global Management reportedly offers to buy

Paramount Pictures film studio for $11 billion

April 2024 Paramount's board reportedly agrees to enter into

exclusive merger talks with Skydance

April 2024 Paramount replaces CEO Bob Bakish with an office of

CEO comprising CBS President and CEO George Cheeks,

Paramount Pictures studio chief Brian Robbins, and

Chris McCarthy, head of Showtime, MTV and other

networks

June 2024 Edgar Bronfman Jr, former chairman of Warner Music,

reportedly expresses interest in buying Paramount's

controlling shareholder National Amusements

June 2024 Shari Redstone abruptly ends talks with Skydance

(Reporting by Priyanka.G and Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)