Paramount Remains ‘Very Open Minded’ to Consolidation Opportunities, CFO Says

thewrap.com:

initially closed to sell it to Bertelsmann’s Penguin Random House for $2.2 billion, but that was ultimately blocked following a lawsuit from the Department of Justice. “The business is performing extremely well and while it’s not core to Paramount, it’s a really good business with phenomenal intellectual property and has had very, very strong financial performance,” he said. “So that’s proven to be a very competitive process.

We’ve had strong interest from a variety of different buyers, both financial buyers and strategic buyers and determining on who ultimately rises to the top of that process, there’s even a path to closing that deal this year.

But whenever that happens, it will also be a factor in helping continue to reduce leverage.”The company, which previously sold its Black Rock headquarters building in New York City for $760 million and Television City studio in Los Angeles for $750 million, is also considering possible sales of its majority stake in BET and its CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in New York City.Beyond its potential divestiture opportunities, Chopra touted Paramount’s partnerships with Walmart+, Delta Air Lines, Verizon+ Play and Amazon’s Prime Video Channels.

Paramount is reportedly in talks with Amazon to add its ad-based tier Paramount+ to Prime Video Channels. Users can currently sign up for ad-free Paramount+ through Prime Video Channels.