Paramount, Skydance said to enter exclusive merger talks

Zoom in: Later on Wednesday, the Journal reported that Apollo Management had offered to buy Paramount for $26 billion. Paramount is focused on the Skydance talks and is pausing talks with other bidders, the paper said.

• Apollo had previously offered $11 billion for just the Paramount film and TV studio, the Journal reported last month. The $26 billion would be for the entire company.
• A separate report from Bloomberg on Wednesday afternoon said that Redstone had "reached a tentative agreement" with Skydance on a deal, though no price was mentioned.
• A representative for Skydance did not immediately respond for comment, while Paramount declined to comment.

Between the lines: Skydance Media would fund the potential deal with help from Skydance investors including RedBird Capital and KKR.

• Skydance CEO is David Ellison, the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

Catch up quick: National Amusements, the Redstone family business that controls 80% of Paramount's voting power, began talking with Skydance back in December.

• Those talks first centered around Skydance buying a controlling stake in National Amusements, which would have given them power over Paramount.
• Paramount also held brief talks with Warner Bros. Discovery.