Update: Closing stock price
Billionaire investor Mario Gabelli may not sell his shares in Paramount (NASDAQ:FOR) even if it merges with popular Hollywood film studio Skydance, the New York Post reported in an interview with him on Friday.
“Can “I will not sell shares if there is a deal with Skydance. I need to see the structure of the transaction,” Gabelli, who is a key voting shareholder in Paramount's holding company, told the Post, adding that he does not currently have a view on the merger.
Said New Skydance deal appears to be better for minority shareholdersincluding him.
Under the new terms, National Amusements, the holding company that owns 77 percent of Paramount's voting stock, does not require the merger to be approved by a majority of shareholders other than Redstone.
The report also said Gabelli said the numbers from the Skydance deal “looked favorable.”
“If Skydance pays $1.75 billion for NAI and NAI has $500 million in debt, that means $1.25 billion left for NAI shareholders,” Gabelli told the New York Post in the interview. “That’s $20 a share.”
Paramount (PARA) shares closed +3.1% at $11.81 on Friday. Paramount Class A shares closed the day +1.8% at $20.47.
Paramount heiress Shari Redstone earlier this week accepted a $1.75 billion offer from Skydance to sell a majority stake in National Amusements. Redstone had initially rejected Skydance's offer.
“Shari did the right thing,” Gabelli told the Post. “She backed off and went with something more appealing.”
Gabelli, while he has his own doubts about whether the Skydance deal will be approved by the FCC, told the Post he is curious to see if Redstone will meet Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav at the annual summer camp for billionaires in Sun Valley. Zaslav has expressed interest in a Paramount deal on occasion.
Gabelli will not attend next week's billionaires' summer camp, the report said.
