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Imagining the Apollo-Paramount Arranged Marriage

Apollo is certainly not the suitor that Shari Redstone dreamed about. But is it the best she can get? And what “value” might they “extract” from the family empire?

shari redstone
Now that Shari Redstone is facing what appears to be a busted auction for Paramount Global, it’s no surprise that the private equity behemoth Apollo has wriggled to the surface. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
March 17, 2024

Alas, as you may have noticed, the sale process for Paramount Global is not going particularly well. Since the beginning of the year, around the time when the process began, the Paramount stock has plummeted 22 percent, while the S&P 500 is up more than 8 percent. Usually, of course, companies “in play,” as they like to say on Wall Street, enjoy a stock bounce as the bidding commences and a winner is selected. But Paramount just keeps drifting lower and lower, with no particular end in sight.