Did Paramount CEO Bob Bakish Just Hint That Paramount Might Be Up For Sale?
Paramount Pictures
By Ryan Scott/March 9, 2022 11:41 am EST
Bakish recently spoke at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference and made some interesting, eyebrow-raising comments. As reported by IndieWire, Bakish said that the moves the company has been making are positioning Paramount as a company that he personally would view as an attractive acquisition target.
“When I look at a company to buy – we’ve done a bunch of smaller deals particularly in Latin America and you can rest assured we look at all the deals – the single most important thing is, ‘If you buy the company, can you use the content?’ The answer typically is no, not for a while. Our investment strategy is increasing optionality because we’re gaining more and more control over high-quality content.”
The endgame comes into focus
Paramount+
Comcast is another big telecom that could be in the mix to make a splashy acquisition, and it’s all about long-term viability in the evolving media landscape. To that end, Paramount would bring with it a growing library of attractive content, as well as 56 million subscribers between Paramount+ and Showtime, a figure that is expected to grow to 100 million by the end of 2024. It’s easier to understand why Paramount said it’s scaling back on blockbusters to focus on streaming. What might all of that be worth for a huge company like Apple, that could grow Apple TV+ by leaps and bounds overnight simply by writing a giant ass check? What are the “Scream,” “Transformers,” “Jackass,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Shrek,” and “Kung Fu Panda” franchises worth?
Again, for the time being, Paramount has not clarified these comments and Bakish didn’t outright say the company is for sale. But can Paramount+ actually compete with the giants in the streaming world long term when it might require spending $5 billion or more per year on content, almost a quarter of the company’s overall market cap? Can that be profitable? It seems increasingly clear that Paramount knows the biggest value it has to the industry is as a pool of content that, when combined with a bigger company, will help make them a media titan.
