Gab’s good with Redstone ’dance
She backed off and got something more appealing.
— Mario Gabelli
Billionaire Mario Gabelli, a key voting shareholder in the holding company that controls Paramount, said he may remain an investor if the media giant merges with Skydance — despite his earlier skepticism about such a tie-up.
Earlier this week, heiress Shari Redstone surprised media insiders with her announcement that she was accepting a merger proposal from Skydance — the Hollywood studio that Paramount has partnered with to produce the “Mission: Impossible” franchise — despite rejecting a deal just weeks earlier.
“Shari did this right,” Gabelli told The Post in an exclusive interview on Friday.
“She backed off and got something more appealing.”
In particular, Gabelli said it appears that the new Skydance deal is a better one for minority shareholders including Gabelli, a previous sticking point.
Under the new arrangement, National Amusements — the holding company that controls Paramount’s voting shares, in which Redstone owns a 77% stake and Gabelli owns a majority of the rest — is not mandating the Paramount merger be approved by a majority of non-Redstone shareholders.
While the shrewd media investor has remained mostly silent over the past several months of negotiations, insiders believed the threat of a lawsuit from Gabelli over the Skydance deal was a key impediment to getting it done.
“I may not sell stock if there is a deal with Skydance. I need to see the structure of the transaction,” Gabelli said, adding that currently he has no opinion yet on the merger. “Until I figure out the details of this deal we are on hold.”
On the face of it, however, Gabelli said the numbers appeared favorable.
“If Skydance is paying $1.75 billion for NAI and NAI has $500 million of debt that’s $1.25 billion left for NAI shareholders,” Gabelli said. “That’s $20 per share.”
Paramount closed Friday at $11.81, up 3%.