Paramount and Skydance have reached an $8 billion merger deal, report says

Paramount Global and Skydance Media have reportedly agreed on terms for a merger after months of talks.

CNBC reports that a committee of Paramount’s independent directors and Skydance’s buying group, which includes the private equity firms RedBird Capital Partners and KKR, have agreed to a deal. The deal is awaiting final approval from Shari Redstone, the head of National Amusements, the holding company which owns 77% of Paramount’s voting shares. An official announcement of the roughly $8 billion deal will be made in the next 24 to 48 hours, CNBC reports.

Paramount declined to comment Monday morning.

Paramount Global stock was up about 7% in Monday morning trading.

Under the newly proposed deal, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, Skydance is set to acquire National Amusements for about $2 billion. Skydance, led by David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison, has also agreed to buy almost 50% of Paramount’s non-voting shares at $15 per share, for a total of $4.5 billion. That would be a roughly 26% premium above the stock’s closing price on Friday.

In exchange, these shareholders will own equity in the newly merged company.

Skydance and its backers will also inject $1.5 billion in cash into Paramount’s balance sheet to help reduce debt.

After the deal closes, Skydance would own about two-thirds of the new company, and non-voting shareholders would own the remaining one-third.

Paramount is currently being led by an “office of the CEO” made up of three division heads at the company. That office is made up of CBS CEO George Cheeks; Chris McCarthy, the CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks; and Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon CEO Brian Robbins. The trio are set to present their long-term plan for the company at Paramount’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday.