Update: Redstone prefers Skydance deal
The morning after news broke about Apollo making a bid for Paramount’s TV and Film Studios, the Financial Times reports Shari Redstone, who owns a majority of controlling shares in Paramount Global, is “unconvinced” by the Apollo deal. The FT report says she is continuing negotiations with David Ellison’s Skydance (who reportedly made a preliminary offer in January). Ellison’s Skydance has a long history of working with Paramount on tentpole film projects, including the last two Star Trek movies.
The Skydance bid is also backed by private equity, but it appears Ellison’s plan would keep Paramount Global primarily intact. His Skydance production company would combine with Paramount’s and he and Redstone are reportedly already discussing executives to head up other parts of the company including CBS, CBS News, and the cable channels. The Skydance bid is complicated as it would be done via a purchase of Redstone’s National Amusements company, which would give him ownership of her controlling shares of Paramount Global. The FT report notes that Skydance is conducting due diligence and has yet to submit a final offer, adding “The two sides hope to reach an agreement in the coming months,” but of course that is no guarantee a deal will be struck.
Skydance founder David Ellison (R) with former Parmount exec Rob Moore and actor Chris Pine at Star Trek Into Darkness premiere
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The buzz around the sale of all or part of Paramount Global took a big step today, and it could have a big impact on Star Trek. Earlier this year, it was reported that the private equity firm Apollo Global had expressed interest in Paramount Global, and today the Wall Street Journal is reporting they have put in a formal bid, but not for all of Paramount Global.
$11 Billion for the studios
According to the WSJ report, Apollo Global Management has made an $11 billion bid for Paramount Global’s film and TV studios. While it didn’t get into specifics, this would presumably include all of Paramount Global’s production studios, including Paramount Pictures, who produce Star Trek feature films, and CBS Studios, who produce Star Trek television shows and technically own the rights to Star Trek.
The $11 billion bid would be paying a premium, as it is more than the $9 billion market value for all of Paramount Global, but it would presumably include all the intellectual property owned by those studios. Apollo is apparently not interested in the CBS broadcast network, cable channels (like MTV and Comedy Central), or streaming services (Pluto and Paramount Plus).
Paramount Pictures studio gate in Hollywood
Apollo Global is a massive private equity firm with assets valued over half of a trillion dollars. The firm specializes in “alternative assets,” which often include distressed companies. It has a record of turning around companies, such as when it purchased Hostess out of bankruptcy in 2013, turning the company around and selling it for a big profit later. It currently has a number of media holdings, including Cox Media Group and a minority stake in Legendary Entertainment, makers of the hit Dune movies.
Paramount Global stock jumped almost 12% today with news of the Apollo bid, which is seen as a good deal for investors. According to the Wall Street Journal, a special committee is assessing different potential deals for the board of Paramount Global. One of those is a reported bid to merge David Ellison’s Skydance production company with Paramount, but that deal would be structured much differently, via purchasing Shari Redstone’s National Amusements and therefore getting her controlling interest in Paramount Global.
Many questions remain for Star Trek
At this point, many details are still unclear about Apollo’s bid and its likelihood of being approved by the board. Any of these big deals for all or part of Paramount Global could take well over a year to be finalized.
Regardless, any deal would likely impact the future of the Star Trek franchise and of course Paramount Plus, the current home to (almost all) of the new original Star Trek television shows. If Paramount Plus continues to exist (or possibly formed a joint venture like the one recently proposed with Comcast), the streaming service could continue to license Star Trek content including commissioning new seasons and series. Or Apollo-owned Paramount Studios could potentially license new and legacy Star Trek television series to other streamers or networks. And it’s even possible both could happen. But again, these impacts may not be felt for years.
TrekMovie will continue to monitor the business news that could have an impact on Star Trek and do our best to keep fans up to date.
Keep up with all the corporate news that can impact Star Trek here at TrekMovie.com.
Ricky thinks it certainly can’t be as bad as Alex Kurtzman leadership! (Edit – Kurtzman leadership of “Star Trek” not of all Paramount. Clarifying.) Discuss!
I don’t get the weird third-person shtick.
Maybe it’s his TV saying Ricky?
Maybe it’s because that’s how Rickey Henderson spoke? He once called up his agent and left an answering machine message, “This is Rickey, calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play again next year.”
Lol, yeah, that was legendary!
Agreed
Why do you talk like that? It’s just weird and off-putting.
Ricky talks the way Ricky talks because Ricky talks the way Ricky talks. (Cue James Cameron scene from South Park.). Now discuss! :D
Yeah, I still don’t get it. But you do you, dude.
Enough! The shstick is over.
False equivalency, Ricky. Try again.
This was always the most likely outcome. This puts Byron Allen in a much stronger position to acquire Paramount’s linear assets.
Paramount+ could be a co-owned entity but licensing content would be far more lucrative for Paramount.
That said, Paramount under the ownership of a private equity firm falls under the category of “least desirable outcomes” as they could opt to start selling pieces of Paramount off after the deal closed and saddle it with debt.
I’m reminded of MGM’s years of ownership by financial institutions. Did them no favors at all.
Yup. Years of instability and sold assets.
Yet they have a relatively nice run recently as compared to some of the other bigs, so one could argue that the streamlining eventually paid off.
The Financial Times has an article out now saying Shari Redstone is more receptive to the Ellison/Skydance deal for NAI. Makes sense.
The financial times should never be considered a news source. It’s a trash site.
I was thinking of Kekorian and the fire sale he made of MGM, too.
My op of current MGM is pretty low too, come to think of it, as their PR department stalled my article inquiries on NO TIME TO DIE for about 20 months before declining all of the confirmed assignments about cinematography, physical FX, VFX, direction and editing, even though they knew I had already talked to the DP, phyFX sup and director about previous projects. Later on I interviewed this same DP about another project — OPPENHEIMER — and he said on Bond that MGM PR had no contact with anybody on the film ever, that it was all done through Eon, which begs a huge question: why would a whole studio PR department, including at least five different team members, all bullshit me over this for the better part of two years?
Financially I’m not in a position to turn down any writing assignments at this point, but if one comes up for an MGM project, I will indeed turn it down. It’d be like having to cover a John Landis project, an ethical compulsion to not have anything to do with them at this point.
Okay, give. What’s the deal with Landis (aside from the TZ tragedy, of course, of which I lack the technical knowledge to assign blame, awful as it was)?
That’s enough for me! I’ve read a couple books about it and talked OTR with one person who was there that night. Landis was likely coked out of his mind when he was demanding lower flights and bigger booms. He shoulda been put away.
IF that’s the case, I certainly agree. I can’t begin to imagine what it would be like to be responsible for something like that. I’m not sure I could live with it at all.
Curious what having Amazon as their owner has meant for them. I think all of us speculating about what would happen if Netflix or Apple bought Paramount could look to this example as a bellwether.
That sounds depressing.
But as long as I keep my 24th century DVDs I’ll survive through it.
Hey bud what I am scared of is the way this is worded. Paramount would be sold to whomever but CBS and other channels and Paramount+ would not be part of the deal? So would that leave us with Star Trek split between 2 companies again? Cause that is so not ideal!
My take on is is that if the Apollo deal is taken, Apollo would own both Paramount Pictures & CBS studios along with the Star Trek franchise while Paramount would be left with Paramount+ as a streaming service.
Paramount would have to make a deal with Apollo for them to continue have the streaming rights to Star Trek for Paramount+ in that regard, as they would no longer own ANY of the Star Trek content.
I would hope you are right and whomever this deal goes to get’s the entirety of the Trek franchise and not bits and pieces.
It is a strange thought tho, if Paramount only keeps Paramount+ what exactly would they even have the rights to stream anymore?
Paramount+ still licenses all its content, it just gets an advantage by having a big movie studio and a big tv studio’s library in the same corporate family – it gets first dibs on a lot of that. They pay for the right to stream everything, it just means some of yhose licensing fees get folded right back into Paramount Global after any residual/profit participation deals are honored.
So if Paramount+ and CBS the network were divorced from the studios, they’d be back to licensing content they don’t have any ownership stake in, which is a tried and tested model and how things worked before media companies tried to own content and distribution soup to nuts. The bigger issue will be that they won’t have as much of a piggy bank to rely on in order to pay for that. Paramount+ is still a year from profitability and CBS relies on Paramount Global to finance expensive deals like the one it has with the NFL.
Interesting, I guess I am just remembering the days when Viacom and CBS had split and it caused so many problems for Trek IIRC.
Oh yeah, that was horrible. Helped make a middle of the 50th anniversary and apparently really frustrated JJ Abrams who envisioned synergy with TV and gaming etc.
But Trek was always free to be licensed to anyone willing to pay for it. Networks wanted TNG, and I’m sure each show post-TNG would have prompted bidding wars with networks/streamers etc. But Paramount has been so used to self-dealing with Trek and not involving middle men. That’s why it is a cash cow – they own the movies and distribute themselves, they directly syndicated 2 shows and co-owned the network for the next 2. Then they owned the service that distributed their streaming shows in the US. And all this was happening while CBS proper had been more and more becoming a conduit for CBS studio shows.
But being an “arms dealer” is lucrative. Look at Sony. They make everything from Jeopardy to The Crown to Outlander, Better Call Saul, and Days of Our Lives, and sell them to any number of outlets, without any of the hassle and cost of managing the distribution. They lose out on advertising revenue but the TV division isn’t in the same cash crunch as Paramount, WBD or Disney’s.
So Paramount could just do with Trek worldwide what it had been doing before Paramount+ got into markets. License it out to Netflix etc for big bucks it probably needs to prop itself back up and realign.
I’m all for it as long as the franchise is respecting and the family all stays together :)
If Apollo does buy Paramount Global, then it would be on the condition of selling its stake at the Cox Media Group–minus Seattle’s CBS affliliate KIRO 7–back to Cox Enterprises, leading to the KIRO-KSTW duopoly, and replacing Alex Kurztman and Secret Hideout with someone who understands Star Trek best.
I love how this post has the veneer of veracity since the FCC would scrutiny any potential monopolies created. But then a big subjective supposition is tacked on with no evidence as to how it pertains to Apollo. I did laugh.
I have to believe that if the FCC let Disney get away with everything they have thus far that this would not be an issue.
Biden administration has been coming down hard on mergers and monopolies. Already quashed a Paramount Global deal to sell Simon and Schuster to Penguin Random House, forcing them to sell to someone who wasn’t another publishing company.
That’s true but IMHO right now they have their hands full with the whole Apple/App store/iMessage stuff.
On another thought, I misspoke and change my mind: I prefer Skydance to buy Paramount Global.
Denny you just described the exact situation Redstone wants.
As someone who works in this industry, I am very, very concerned about this deal. Apollo Global Management is a hedge fund, and hedge funds are notoriously mercenary and miserly when they acquire new properties. Making movies and TV shows will not be Apollo’s goal here–making billions on their investment will be, and they won’t necessarily view shows and films as the route to making those billions. I know that sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s how they operate. Apollo has already ruined successful TV production groups for the sake of profit. I’ve seen it happen where Apollo was involved.
Some fans might see this as “Oh, good news, this means an infusion of capitol–more Star Trek, yay!” But the exact opposite would more likely be the outcome with Apollo at the helm. They will be looking to buy Paramount at a good price, then streamline the hell out of it to reduce costs (in order words… canceling shows and films, and firing lots of people) so they can sell everything off at a profit. This could end up being the end of Paramount, not a new beginning. And we can likely say goodbye to Paramount-Plus, which will mean no more Star Trek in the future. Star Trek is damn expensive. It’ll be on the chopping block, mark my words.
Hedge funds can sometimes make more money with failed properties than they can with successful ones. Apollo has a rep for focusing on the bottom line and stripping down acquisitions to the bare minimum. This will not be a good thing for Paramount, Star Trek, or fans. Hedge funds focus primarily on efficiency, not quality. They’re glorified house-flippers–they’re all about fast bucks, as they are required to deliver a return on investment for shareholders and investors. With hedge funds, the end product frequently suffers. I have never been a doomsayer and often roll my eyes when I see that going on here and in other forums. But this could very well be a doom scenario.
But if they look to sell off the assets, Star Trek is one of the biggest assets they have. Would it be a bad thing if Star Trek was separated from the studio itself and sold to Netflix, Apple, or Amazon studios? If Star Wars went for 8b, is Trek without Paramount’s debt worth 3-4b?
Depends who would buy it. If it went to another studio that owns bigger franchises, then Trek starts playing second fiddle to higher priority properties. Sell it to Netflix it gets buried in their binge content machine. Sell to Apple it flirts with obscurity on a smaller platform than Paramount+.
The best scenario is Paramount is maintained by a larger company and better managed, but not to the point of extreme penny pinching in the way it seems to revert back to every decade.
But I like the idea of Apple because a) the obvious they have more money than anyone who isn’t Microsoft and b) while Apple TV+ is tiny, you can tell Apple cares deeply about the quality of their content and c) Apple and Ron Moore already work together on at least one show. Imagine if he came back to the franchise, even if only in a limited capacity.
Yeah, I don’t hate it. It’s not like I’m not used to Trek being a little under the radar from the UPN and CBS All Access days.
Apple also isn’t a big fan of shows swinging so hard into TV-MA territory without cause, and that was always a distraction to me with early Picard and Disco. Felt gratuitous.
They’ve just not shown any inclination to acquire a media company and all that responsibility.
In a way I think that would help even more. Reign in the new age of Trek going to far with explicit type stuff. I mean a one liner here and there for a joke is ok like Data in Generation but gratuity for gratuity sake feels cheap like you said.
I love the idea of Apple buying it. Then we’d get more serious “prestige” Star Trek series’ — no more silly cartoon sitcoms and musical eps. Real science fiction Star Trek — sign me up!
I would rather Apple buy Star Trek than staying at Paramount or going to Disney, Netflix etc considering Apple really invests in good quality sci fi series. Just look at the production quality of Foundation which you would call a niche sci fi series compared to Trek, Foundation is the best looking sci fi series out there.
Disney getting hold of Star Trek would be a disaster though.
And Apple already works with Ron Moore!
Star Wars wasn’t sold for $8b. All of Lucasfilm – Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Willow, ILM, Lucas Books, etc. – was sold for $4.05b.
Which equates to about $8b in today’s dollars.
More like $5.5 billion, per Inflation Calculator 2012-2024.
I should have been more specific — inflation related to major corporate valuations in 2012 versus today. Stock valuation is one several factors and analyst would us to measure that. Corporate valuations tend to double every 10 to 15 years, so that’s why I though out $8B as a likely number for today.
My ultimate hope is that Apple buys the Star Trek IP and hires Ron Moore to be the new Feige-like Trek studio head. Then Ron fires Kurtzman & Goldsman, hires Matalas, Ira Behr, Dave Gerrold, Nick Meyer, the Reeves-Stevens, and maybe David Mack to create new Star Trek.
In a perfect world, that would work beautifully except… It’s not a perfect world and that’s not going to happen.
It would be sold to Disney and then we can have that Star Wars crossover we always wanted. Maybe Doctor Who will make a Cameo.
Making more money with failed properties sounds dangerously closed to the premise of THE PRODUCERS. So should we be thinking the downfall of franchise Trek will be in the hands of Gordon Gecko or Max Bialystock?
I have to agree. Hedge funds are one of the worst features of late-stage capitalism — they care for nothing but profit.
I’ll bite.
– How do you define “late-stage capitalism?”
– How do you distinguish it from “early-stage capitalism”?
– When did we pass from “early-stage capitalism” to “late-stage capitalism”?
– How do participants in “early-stage capitalism” care less for profit than participants in “late-stage capitalism”?
– How is the phrase “late-stage capitalism” different from “late-stage gravity”?
– If you dislike public capital markets, how do you propose to connect people with capital with companies that need capital? How would your proposed system allocate capital more efficiently than markets?
God, to think I was once in the mainstream center-left…
Your questions are obviously leading (what does ‘late-stage’ mean, right, whatever), and life being short I’ll take a pass on bothering to answer them as if they had been asked in good faith. As to your own ideological epiphany — well, I hadn’t asked, it being none of my business — but I suppose I’ll just have to live with the idea that you’re no longer an ally.
Hedge Funds!? No. No. No. They will screw all the fans, that’s for sure.
If Elon hadn’t blown all his spare change on Twitter, he could buy Paramount+. Extra benefit would be the people responsible for Disco resigning in disgust.
Why would anyone want Star Trek to be associated with that man?
Not the best news.
No one is buying Paramount. Just more clickbait.
Nope, 11 billion will be too good to pass up
Agreed. Hard to pass up that kind of premium.
I hope there is a better counter offer like skydance (article updated) because regardless of the $$$ I don’t wanna see Star Trek become a split franchise again if Paramount is broken up and sold for parts.
That is incorrect. Paramount will definitely be sold at some point.
It seems to me, at first glance anyway, like Paramount is squarely in what M&A lawyer call “Revlon duties”: namely, that when it becomes clear that the company will be sold, the duty of the board is to ensure the maximum value of the company, rather than to resist the sale.
still hope skydance offers 11 million just for star trek ip and cbs toronto studio and move all productions for movies and shows to toronto and still make trek shows and films
and keep putting them out on physical media mainly standard clear blue case blu-rays no pointless over priced steelbook cases and no overrated over hyped 4k disks as there is not enough shows and films in that disk format to make it worth it
i would not care if someone else buys the rest of the of cbs/paramount ip’s and main california based studios
Which of course explains how The Abyss 4K UHD Blu-Ray sold out immediately last week (I got mine, BTW!).
Dare I ask how it looks? The word from folks on bluray.com makes it seem Cameron’s handpicked company (Aussie or NZ, I think, possibly Peter Jackson’s outfit) scrubbed the grain away on all of these new releases with a grotesque AI process that artificially sharpens stuff that was supposed be soft along with the in-focus parts, essentially transforming it into a film that looks like it was acquired via current digital capture systems.
I’ve got just a couple dozen 4K discs, but it is still only a smidgen compared to what I have on blu, largely because it seems like there are as many disimprovements as there are new releases that actually show off better color fidelity and richer contrast.
It looks F’ing awesome — spectacular! There are a couple of VFX scenes that look a little dated, but that has nothing to do with the 4K remastering.
This is the best 4K UHD BR remaster of any older movie that I have personally watched to date.
4K HDR overated Blu Ray’s lol, I assume you have a cheap 4K TV then. Also the sound quality is so so much better with UHD disks, but then I assume you listen to cheap TV speakers also.
I do not have any 4k tvs or smart tvs my 45 inch flat screen is a 2015 rca model it is still going strong
My also my Mac desktop is a late 2015 model and my MacBook Air is a early 2015 model my ipad is a early 2016 model I have two disk players connected via hdmi cables one dvd and one blu-ray to my 45 inch tv
I also have a smaller 25 inch flatscreen a 2014 Vizio model that is hooked up to my original Xbox
There is not enough of shows and movies on 4k hdr far far less then there are on standard blu-ray
No to mention our eyes can’t even see 4k pixels that was proven it is just people believing the tv making companies who are trying to sell far far more expensive tvs
Nonsense you can notice 4K pixel density if you sit close enough to the TV and if you have a really large TV it is very noticable from a distance also. Now the most important upgrade is HDR, not only do you have more colours (billions rather than Blu Ray SDR’s millions)so it looks more natural you have much better contrast which is massively better than SDR which can look very flat at times . I also mentioned sound quality which comes uncompressed and usually has a fantastic Dolby or DTS soundtrack, it sounds amazing with a good surround set up does to immerse you in a film/series.
It is laughable that someone with a low quality 1080p 45 inch TV says that UHD Blu Rays are overrated. Why is Disney releasing most of it’s Star Wars series or Marvel series now on UHD Blu Ray if there is no market for it (I will be buying Andor season 1). Every Star Trek movie is on 4K UHD (the motion picture looks amazing on UHD Blu Ray btw a massive step up from standard Blu Ray).
Also all the streaming channels release their new content in 4K HDR so where are you getting that there is not enough content in 4K, but you obviously haven’t research that at all and are just throwing figures about.
It is 2024 why would we stick to full HD SDR content when most films and series are recorded in 4K HDR, it is being stuck in the past don’t you think.
Agree with all this, and to add — 4K UHD BR’s have noticeably better quality then 4K streaming — at least with most streaming services today.
And most importantly you own that best quality version and no streaming service can take it away from you. Great to see SNW is UHD Blu Ray and hopefully ALL Star Trek is UHD Blu Ray going forth.
Bought The Motion Picture this morning on UHD Blu Ray
and it was delivered today and I can’t believe how a film from the 70’s can look this good. The clarity is up there with modern releases, absolutely fantastic transfer. Also TMP is a really good film, really enjoyed watching it as it has been a long time. First time I have seen The Director’s Edition.
I have standard blu-ray for snw seasons 1 and 2
100% — I have that TMP 4K UHD — and it’s spectacular. It’s now the movie I always wanted it to be — the improvements and scene changes were just awesome.
I do respect cinefile kmart’s contrary opinion on TMP 4K BR, but you, I and most professional and fan reviewers are in agreement on how awesome it is.
I highly recommend the new The Abyss 4K UHD BR — spectacular! They actually ran out of the first batch everywhere, but wait a month and buy it for a good price (there are some on Ebay trying to sell it for $100 just because you temporarily can’t get it…lol)
I will wait patiently for a realisticly priced US import of The Abyss 4K UHD. Looking forward to watching it again 😁
if you say my dvd and blu-ray library you would see why i think 4k disks are pointless and since alot of the shows and movies only get dvd releases like the the different ncis series seasons and pokemon anime seasons
not to mention it is amazing when some shows get blu-ray releases after a remastering like the stargate sg1 and now babylon 5 i dought those will ever get a 4k release others are lucky that they got a blu-ray relese at all like EUReRKA and warehouse 13 and the original knight rider
and classic shows like gilligan’s island and hogan’s heroes and mchale’s navy only get dvd releases
and i really only buy certain types of shows and movies on blu-ray to start with mainly spfx and vfx heavy shows and films like star trek and fast and furious and pirates of the Caribbean films and indiana jones films and and oppenhiemer and barbie on blu-ray and the star wars animated shows and live action movies but i also bought the original knight rider series on blu-ray cause they did do a bit of clean up on those and i bought the blu-ray complete 3 series box set of the the stargate franchise and warehouse 13 and EUReKA on blu-ray
most of my physicial media library is on dvd
i don’t replace tvs and laptops and destops and tablets unless i need to just cause some new more advanced version comes out and i know when i do need to i will get the same type i already have but refurbished ones for one cause they are cheaper and easier on my limited extra money that i have each month after the majority goes to utilities and twice a year property taxes and i have a hobby which competes for that extra money aka i build models which is not cheap between the price of spray pain the price of the kits and the price fume free super glue and for two i am use to them
also i now longer have the two streaming services i always subscribed to paramount+ and disney+ and both subscriptions ran out last year paramount+ ran out a day before strange new worlds season 2 started and initally the reason i did not renew over them canceling prodigy and then i chose to add the strikes and i would not resubscribe uless the writers and actors won then i just forgot and now there is really only a couple trek shows left on it with picard over and discovery ending it is only strange new worlds and lower decks with a third one soon to come starfleet academy and one ncis series left now that i like hawaii now that los angelese ended i decided to just buy the seasons as they come out on blu-ray for start trek and dvd for ncis hawaii and disney+ ran out may 4th last year did not reup cause of the strikes and now i just don’t care to pay the subscription fee when they are slowly putting out standard blu-ray release in stupid steel books
which i will have replace with standard clear blue blu-ray cases with custom made sleeve case art so all my blu-rays on my shelves match and i orginize my physical media by franchise and with star trek and star wars in in universe chronlogical order not real world release order i all ready have issues with trek with ds9 and voyager only availible in dvd form
You have issues that DS9 and Voyager are only released on DVD and not Blu Ray but you say that future Star Trek should only be Blu Ray and not UHD Blu Ray. I am basically posting your same grievances.If I have the capable hardware why should I accept inferior physical media.
With a good TV and sound system UHD HDR Blu Ray is a a massively worthwhile upgrade on HD SDR Blu Ray.
I don’t have a issue with ds9 and voy only on dvd i know there will never be a remaster with blu-ray release i just don’t like having part of my series on different shelves
star trek is not the only franchieses i like and alot of them are only put out on dvd mainly pokemon anime seasons and ncis show seasons and scooby doo series seasons
Wait million or billion? Cause if it is 11 million I swear I am going to NYC tomorrow to cut some deals and get the capital LOL
My prediction is that Apollo Global will sell off the entire Star Trek catalogue except the TOS episode, Who Mourns for Adonais. They will hold on to that one.
😂
Nice one.
Hilarious!
Either that or they’ll try to fire all the masters for the series into lunar orbit, but instead see them burn up on the launch pad.
That pesky Apollo, this is his revemge for what Kirk did to him
Giant green hand!
I know that references BEYOND, but my thought was Orion slave girl as jolly green giantess.
This is the firm that owns Cox Media Group. The company that bought up a bunch of network affiliates around the US and seeded the local news with right-wing fear mongering and lies.
I don’t want Star Trek to be anywhere near those people.
Amen to that!!!
UPDATE The article has been updated with a key new report from the FT.
Judging by what I read about Apollo online, those are bad news for Star Trek.
I saw the article about Redstone preferring the Skydance deal. Four billion apart can’t be ignored, though. If Apollo does prune the prime fruit from the Paramount Global tree, though, the likelihood is high everything else just gets jettisoned. In my opinion, the Apollo deal is the least desirable for Paramount’s IP’s. Stay tuned….
I’m with Redstone. Go with the deal that keeps Paramount intact. I don’t think I could take Star Trek being a split property again 😢
skydance is the last best hope in the universe for star trek peace
Skydance would be a much, much better option than Apollo. Apollo (despite the cool name) would completely gut Paramount and g0d only knows what would be left behind. It would probably end up being worse than the Discovery/WB merger which basically ruined HBO and resulted in the cancellation of multiple projects that were basically finished (Batgirl and Coyote vs. Acme are the two prime examples).
After seeing the way Apollo Global gutted a previous employer of mine… I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
Terrible Deal. Hope doesn’t move forward.
Apollo, as in the big dude from Olympus (Sorry)?
I prefer Skydance as well, as it’s not a vulture capital group.
Redstone is an idiot who needs to be voted out by the Board ASAP. She has no intentions of protecting the company or it’s assets. She is literally Chuck Seder from Mr. Deeds, and she wants nothing more than to strip the company down and sell it off.