What now?
The Skydance Media deal for National Amusements appears to be dead, with the company declining to extend its exclusive negotiating window, and sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that controlling shareholder Shari Redstone is cool on the $26 billion offer from Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management — a deal that would lead to the breakup of the empire her father built. While it is possible that Paramount’s independent board committee believes that regulatory concerns presented by the Apollo-Sony offer can be overlooked and recommends that deal, it looks like an increasingly challenged proposition.
For the foreseeable future, it appears, the company is in the hands of the three-man committee made up of CBS chief George Cheeks, Paramount Pictures’ Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy, head of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and…