Paramount Sells Its Stake In Viacom18 To Reliance Industries

(CTN News) – Paramount Global (PARA) is selling its 13% stake in Indian broadcasting company Viacom18 to Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS).

Alexandra Canal, Yahoo Finance Entertainment Reporter, discusses merger and acquisition outlook and its role in the streaming industry.

Transcription of the video

A 13% stake in Indian business will be sold to Reliance for more than $500 million. In addition, this news comes just two weeks after Disney and Reliance Industries announced a joint venture worth $8.5 billion combining their Indian TV and streaming businesses.

In addition to Alexandra Canal, we have a senior reporter from Yahoo Finance covering this story.

Alexandra Canal: Good morning, Seana. That’s right. In terms of M&A, paramount has been a top name, particularly as it seeks to delever its balance sheet. Viacom18 is a great example of those efforts. As you mentioned, Reliance will acquire Paramount’s entire 13% stake for approximately $517 million.

For a company that has a struggling balance sheet and is seeking to improve its financial standing, that is an enormous amount of money.

Following the completion of the transaction, Paramount will continue to license content to Viacom18. Licenses have become a really popular option for many streaming and media companies, especially when we consider profitability and the future viability of these businesses.

However, India is a very difficult market to excel in. Paramount has now retreated from the country following Disney’s departure. Furthermore, Paramount has stated that it will be leaning on lower investment models in markets where Paramount Plus has not yet been launched in order to fully leverage its TV and movie business.

I consider this to be a positive development for when it comes to financial returns, however, the company will have a lot of work ahead of it. Rumor mills, mergers and acquisitions mills, they are not slowing down anytime soon.

The parent company of our company, Apollo, has now been included in this process. Paramount’s CEO, Bob Bakish, has indicated the company is open to acquiring companies. Therefore, they create value for shareholders. We’ll see how this goes. They are starting to offload little by little.

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