Diller to bid for Paramount?
July 2, 2024
Media legend Barry Diller is exploring a bid for Paramount according to NYT reporting. Diller’s digital-media group, IAC, has reportedly signed NDAs with National Amusements, Paramount’s controlling shareholder.
The Diller move is the latest in the long Paramount sale/no sale saga. Paramount reached the brink of a deal with Skydance before it abruptly fell apart last month. Sony and investors had also lined up for a deal as did Edgar Bronfman media financier from the Seagram clan.
Diller, 82, tried to acquire Paramount Pictures in the early 1990s. He was outbid by Sumner Redstone, the media mogul whose daughter, Shari, now controls the company. Diller was head of Paramount Pictures in 1974 at the age of 32, credited with rejuvenating the studio, he brought on executive talent including Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Diller then went on to run Rupert Murdoch’s nascent Fox Network before going onto found IAC.