Wagers on the future of Paramount (PARA) may extend beyond Super Bowl LVIII in the gambling-heavy city of Las Vegas.
That's not lost on the man who was the driving force behind securing a new 11-year TV rights deal with the NFL back in 2021, which will see Paramount-owned CBS host this year's big game as well as the ones in 2028 and 2032.
"As a management team and more to directors, we are focused on shareholder value and creating shareholder value," Paramount CEO Bob Bakish told Yahoo Finance Live from Las Vegas (video above). "The most predictable route to doing that is through execution, and that's why we are laser-focused on execution, including, by the way, maximizing the value of this weekend here in Las Vegas at the Super Bowl for Paramount Global. You see us showcasing a lot of our products and introducing a new brand campaign for Pluto, and you'll see us launching the fall slate on CBS and Halo on Paramount+."
Bakish didn't shut the door on making a deal for all or part of the company.
"In parallel, we are always looking at alternate ways of creating shareholder value, including potentially through transactions," Bakish added. "We will have to see if anything happens in that regard."
By most accounts, Paramount has created a bang-up Super Bowl lineup in terms of advertising (thank you, Taylor Swift). Bloomberg reported that Paramount sold out its ad inventory on CBS, Nickelodeon, and the Paramount+ platforms. That has reportedly put Paramount in excess of the hefty $600 million mark for Super Bowl ad sales that Fox hauled in last year.
Bakish told Yahoo Finance Live the company has broken the "high-water mark" for Super Bowl ad sales, in an apparent reference to the aforementioned Fox figure.
The strong Super Bowl ad showing comes at an opportune time for Bakish and Paramount. And the deal chatter has only intensified around the legacy media giant in recent months.
Reports have stated that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav approached Bakish and Shari Redstone, who is the controlling Paramount shareholder through her National Amusements vehicle, about a combination.
David Ellison's Skydance and RedBird Capital have also reportedly kicked the tires on Paramount.
Within the past week, media mogul Byron Allen was said to have made a $14.3 billion offer for all outstanding shares of Paramount. He also reportedly offered to assume Paramount's $15.6 billion in debt. The total potential deal value from Allen: $30 billion.
Bakish declined to comment to Yahoo Finance Live on whether firm bids for the company have been submitted.
Paramount stock has climbed roughly 21% from its late October 52-week low.
Wall Street pros who have covered Paramount for a while believe a deal will happen with one of these groups, but the timing is just as predictable as the winner of Sunday's Super Bowl.
"We see a deal announced in or after April [with Warner Bros. Discovery]," JPMorgan analyst Christian Crosby said in a recent client note. "We find the election timing consideration ... to be most relevant on that front, and we imagine that both firms might want to have a little more visibility into the direct-to-consumer (DTC) landscape and ad market this year before [the] announcement."
Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich said the combo of Skydance and RedBird makes the most sense as a landing spot for Paramount.
"In our view, even following this offer from Allen, Skydance/RedBird remain the most credible buyers for National Amusements/Paramount," Ehrlich told clients in a note. "It is worth noting that an offer from Allen and the appearance of a potential bidding war could potentially force the hand of Skydance/RedBird to increase their bid and/or expedite the process to buy National Amusements or Paramount."
A private Paramount would be best positioned to weather the shift to streaming media being led by Netflix (NFLX) and Amazon (AMZN) — one that has hammered legacy media companies such as Paramount and Disney (DIS).
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Paramount's DTC business lost $1.2 billion on an adjusted operating profit basis. The company's TV media division saw adjusted operating profits drop 12% year on year to $3.6 billion.
Paramount ended the nine-month period with about $15.6 billion in long-term debt and $1.8 billion in cash.
The company — which just announced a round of layoffs to tighten up its finances — will post its fourth quarter and full-year 2023 earnings results on Feb. 28.
"While we continue to believe Paramount retains an attractive collection of assets," Ehrlich added, "secular and cyclical headwinds should remain challenging to fundamentals near term."
Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on Twitter/X @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn. Tips on deals, mergers, activist situations, or anything else? Email [email protected].
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