{"id":46966,"date":"2025-07-07T21:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T21:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46966\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T21:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T21:25:14","slug":"paramount-skydance-latest-90-day-merger-extension-kicks-off-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/46966\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount, Skydance Latest 90-Day Merger Extension Kicks Off Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tA second 90-day extension on Paramount Global<\/a>\u2019s proposed sale to David Ellison\u2019s Skydance<\/a> automatically triggered today as per the deal agreement, leaving the parties and the FCC<\/a> more time to nail things down. Approval by the Commission led by Brendan Carr is required to transfer CBS<\/a> broadcast licenses to Skydance.<\/p>\n

\n\tAny discussions will unfold against a presumably more favorable backdrop, that being a $16 million settlement announced last week<\/a> between CBS and Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe status of any conversations between the FCC and Skydance couldn\u2019t be ascertained. The current window to close the deal runs through early October. Paramount and Skydance announced their long-gestating merger agreement after six months of back and forth exactly a year ago \u2013 on July 7, 2024. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe President sued the network and 60 Minutes<\/a> for $20 billion last fall alleging the newsmagazine edited its presentation of an interview with Kamala Harris to make the then-Democratic candidate sound better. Allegations, filed in court in Amarillo, Texas, shifted after Trump won to rest on a more convoluted, commercial argument. CBS has always denied all allegations and Trump\u2019s case wasn\u2019t considered strong.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone was said to be eager to resolve the suit and move forward with the sale of her family\u2019s controlling stake in Paramount. A handful of politicians and interest groups had threatened to sue Redstone for violating anti-bribery statutes if Par agreed to a settlement. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe settlement includes a donation for Trump\u2019s presidential library and covers his legal expenses. It does not include an expression of regret or apology.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount co-CEO George Cheeks told shareholders that settlements are not uncommon<\/a> to avoid unpredictable legal costs, the risk of an adverse judgment that could result in financial and reputational damage and the disruption to business operations that prolonged legal battles can cause.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe settlement with Trump \u201coffers a negotiated resolution that allows companies to focus on their core objectives rather than being mired in uncertainty and distraction,\u201d he said at Paramount\u2019s virtual annual meeting last Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the lawsuit concerned Paramount\/CBS, any ongoing merger talks at the FCC level would now mostly involve David Ellison and Skydance, which would become the owner of the broadcast licenses in a deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn December, Disney\/ABC News settled a defamation suit by Trump for $15 million, including a contribution to his library, legal costs and an expression of regret over anchor George Stephanopoulos\u2019 inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer\u00a0E. Jean Carroll. Trump was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A second 90-day extension on Paramount Global\u2019s proposed sale to David Ellison\u2019s Skydance automatically triggered today as per…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[15327,64,15328,69,36397,16275,26873,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-46966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-60-minutes","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-cbs","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-fcc","13":"tag-paramount-global","14":"tag-skydance","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114814066625798124","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}