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A few weeks back, a report from the New York Times suggested that Sony was currently in talks with a monied partner, Apollo Global Management, to buy the legendary picture house Paramount. Well, the twosome has now drawn up terms, reportedly making an all-cash offer of $26 billion, which, if accepted, could open up Paramount's stockpiled IP for future collaboration.
A new report, this time from the Wall Street Journal (thanks, PSU), says that the extremely liquid offer has already been made. Previously, Apollo had made an independent bid, again for $26 billion, plus equity, but the WSJ reports there were concerns the firm wouldn't be able to secure the necessary financing. Skydance Media is reportedly the other front-runner for the purchase, but shareholders at Paramount were concerned that that specific deal would give controlling shareholder Shari Redstone too much power.
It remains to be seen if the bid will be accepted, but Skydance's exclusive negotiating window is about to expire, so it seems Sony wants to get in while the getting's good. We'll keep an eye on this story as it develops.
What do you think of Sony's big money move? Are you excited to see the company expand its media empire? Let us know in the comments section below.
Comments 40
Looking forward to a Halo/Last of Us tv show crossover
@Doctor_BK Maybe a Bill and Knuckles episode as well
I don't think it's going to happen because apparently the major shareholder of Paramount wants the Skydance Media merger even when that merger is going to screw other shareholders. So Skydance has the upper hand.
If it happens cool I guess. I love Avatar and Sony has the talent to make the best Avatar game ever. This also applies to Ninja Turtles.
Playstation All Stars BR would have a new pool of characters to choose from for the second game ... LOL.
There's quite a few IP's Sony can use for Playstation exclusives from this acquisition, so I'm hoping they win they bid. Then get one of their studios working on a Godfather game.
@GymratAmarillo I believe Disney own Avatar.
Paramount seems to own the Indiana Jones IP too.
What would that mean for the upcoming videogame?
@UltimateOtaku91 He's talking about The Last Airbender.
@Anke Nothing because Lucasfilm/Disney own it.
@UltimateOtaku91 not that Avatar bro. Avatar the last airbender.
@Enuo Ah, I forgot about that one.
@Anke it will be coming to PlayStation regardless of any Paramount buyout. The last Indiana Jones film flopped hard and I don’t see how the Xbox management are going to be thinking “yeah, we’re going to sell bucket loads with this”. I genuinely think they’re on for a loss earner with this game, the footage so far hasn’t exactly set the hype world alight
@BusyOlf The game honestly looks pretty bad in my opinion and Troy Baker sounds like his voiced has been AI enhanced badly.
@DennisReynolds Machine Games never really hit any high notes with the Wolfenstein games. The last one had some very bland level design.
Will be interesting to see if this goes through.
I posted this in the movie thread the other day, but I’ll stick it here too.
The other day, the CEO “steps down” they bring 3 people in to replace him, then they have a 9 minute earning call, don’t take any questions and instead play the Mission Impossible theme on a loop.
Sounds stable.
@BusyOlf The New Order was fantastic but the 2nd one was underwhelming and the live service spin off was insulting.
I don't think it will make much of a difference in the games division simply because Sony barely has enough studios to handle the IPs they have now. I don't think we'll see Naughty Dog stop working with its own IPs to work with one from Paramount.
At least we might finally get a Paramount+ app for the Playstation 4/5?
I can't help but think that Sony could be better off spending that vast sum of money somewhere else?
@BusyOlf
Got to add, 'Indiana Jones and the Great Circle' has to be the most dull, uninspiring and insipid title they could have thought of.
What's next 'Indiana Jones and the Queue at the Pharmacy'?
Back on topic, I guess this means Sony will have first dibs on the Star Trek licence too.
Can't wait for the Spider-Verse and TMNT Mutant Mayhem crossover movie!
Wonder if the FTC will bother with this
@BusyOlf That's the thing with Machinegames. Everything looks great and the stories are apparently great if you care about the stories they are telling (I like shooting demons and robots etc more than shooting nazis, personally), but their games just don't play very well imo.
@BusyOlf well that's a lie
@Anke nothing deals already in place that would need to be honored. That being said Microsoft will probably release it on PlayStation anyway maybe a year later
Paramount don't have a lot of money making franchise. Shame, the movie industry has been all about superheroes for over a decade. After COVID, only blockbusters make money, even that is no longer a given. But it would give an option for Sony to do a streaming service, as I feel none of them can do a proper streaming separately.
@Toot1st FTC will probably review it but will approve it given that Disney buying Fox was a much bigger merger.
@mrbone Presumably they'd rename Paramount plus and add Sony stuff to it?
@BusyOlf People were massively impressed by the game footage from what I read. I thought it looked brilliant. Terrible name though.
There will be a ton of PlayStation diehards here saying that it's a great move for Sony to buy up Paramount and all of its IP.
The same people who slammed Microsoft for buying ABK no doubt.
@get2sammyb Do you have a personal opinion on whether it should happen?
@__jamiie Ironically, no one says it is a great move after > 20 comments here. Stop your groundless fanboy accusations. It is also very different from gaming acquisition.
@Futureshark One of the worst titles ever. So disappointing.
@mrbone There's already one comment.
@mrbone And when did I ever use the term fanboy?
Stop trying to cause an argument.
@mrbone crazy how that was allowed
Apollo money and Sony management. What could go wrong!!! I do see a bit of potential and Sony and Apollo can probably up their bid to 30bn if Sony start to put their own money into the bid. An of they take the same approach to some of their music acquisitions I seem them acquiring control overtime.
@ED_209 they can license out the content to third party studios to create games exclusively to PlayStation Console and may be even a exclusive pc gaming store that I'm sure they will eventually launch.
@Fyz306903 They might actually shut that loss making division down. Sony has a nice business making shows for other streaming network, netflix and apple and HBO who front the money and thr risk and Sony just takes profit's from charging for producing the content.
That would be a cheaper strategy than trying to turnaround paramount+ which has loss billions.
"Prestige Worldwide" is that a cheeky step brothers quote? 😂
@UltimateOtaku91 omg, I wish they would release PS2 first godfather. To this day one of my favourite games.
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