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Paramount Theatre in Bristol (Image: Justin Campbell)
After months of back and forth, Paramount Global and Skydance Media announced that they will be merging. Talks of merger began late last year, and after an initial rejection last month, Paramount has agreed to merge with Skydance.
However, the outcome has yet to be set in stone, as Paramount has 45 days to consider its other offers.
Introducing the players
Most people are familiar with Paramount — it’s one of the five most well known production and distribution companies in the media industry, alongside Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, Walt Disney Studios, and Sony Pictures.
Paramount Global owns traditional television channels, such as CBS, MTV, and Nickelodeon; a streaming service, Paramount+; and of course, the film studio Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is the second oldest film studio in the United States, and home to well-known classics, like the Godfather, Chinatown, and Top Gun.
Its soon-to-be owner, Skydance Media may not be as recognisable to the layman, but this company has actually worked together with film studio since 2009.
The production company has collaborated with Paramount to co-produce and co-finances films, which Paramount Pictures handles the distribution of. Most of these collaborations are with Paramount Pictures’ big budget films, including the Mission Impossible, the Terminator and Transformers franchises.
Merger and unity
Considering Paramount’s long history in the industry, and their present status as one of the big five media companies, some may be surprised at the announcement of the merger.
Paramount has actually lost more than 70% of its market value since 2019. Some attribute this loss to Paramount’s late entry into the streaming market with Paramount+, such that the streaming service did not turn a profit in time to cover its shrinking income from traditional television services.
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Correspondingly, Paramount Global released a plan to cut US$500 million earlier this year. As part of this plan, the company laid off 800 employees, and will continue to shrink its workforce until the deal with Skydance has been finalised.
Therefore, this deal seems well positioned to help both companies move forward in the competitive media industry.
Skydance will firstly buy the company National Amusements, which owns 77% of Paramount’s voting shares, for US$1.75 billion, after which Skydance and Paramount will merge.
Turning up Ellison
With this deal, an interesting name is increasingly appearing in the business of entertainment: Ellison.
Skydance Media was founded by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
With Skydance, David Ellison has collaborated with a number of Hollywood Studios and streaming services to produce a rich catalogue of films. Skydance has also expanded to games, and is working together with Marvel Entertainment to release a game next year. In his catalogue, David Ellison’s focus in film primarily targets big-budget blockbusters.
In contrast, his sister, Megan Ellison is involved in a wide range of mid-budget artistic films. The younger Ellison also has her own company, Annapurna Pictures, an independent media company. A look through Annapurna Pictures’ portfolio reveals its involvement with numerous award-winning films: Her, Missing Link, and Nimona.
Besides movies, Annapurna also has a branch that produces, develops, and distributes video games: Annapurna Interactive. Annapurna Interactive is well-known and well respected in the video game sphere, having produced a number of award winning games.
Unfortunately, with their popularity in the games sphere, Annapurna Pictures’ has not been as active with producing movies in the last few years, leaving most to write off the film side of the company. However, Megan Ellison appears to be making a comeback with Nimona, which received a nomination for the 2024 Academy Awards Best Animated Feature.
With David Ellison’s Skydance Media merging with Paramount Pictures, and Megan Ellison returning to fund movies, it appears that the Ellison name will become an increasingly major player in the entertainment industry.
