PRIVATE equity firm Apollo Global Management has offered US$11 billion for Paramount Global’s film studio, Paramount Pictures, a source with knowledge of the offer said, adding to the takeover interest for the media conglomerate.

Paramount’s shares rose 10 per cent after the Wall Street Journal first reported the news.

Apollo had also reached out to a special committee formed by Paramount about a possible takeover or asset purchases, Axios News had reported earlier in March.

Paramount Global declined to comment and Apollo could not immediately be reached for comment.

Paramount Pictures, which has an expansive library of films including The Godfather, Star Trek and Indiana Jones, has attracted interest from many suitors over the years.

However, Shari Redstone, the media conglomerate’s controlling shareholder through her stake in parent company National Amusements, has been reluctant to part with the studio.

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National Amusements directly or indirectly owns 77 per cent of the voting shares of Paramount, giving it control of the firm’s 100-year-old film studio and television networks.

Apart from Paramount, National Amusements controls CBS, cable networks Nickelodeon and Comedy Central and also owns 800 film screens in the United States.

The deterioration of the global entertainment business has wiped out billions of US dollars of value from the media company, formed through the hard-fought reunion of CBS and Viacom in 2019. The Redstone family considers the media asset as undervalued by investors and is exploring its options.

Media entrepreneur Byron Allen had submitted a US$30 billion offer for Paramount Global, including debt and equity, Allen Media Group had said in January.

It also fielded an interest from Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, who made a preliminary offer to buy National Amusements, the holding company of the Redstone family, as a way to take control of Paramount Global, Bloomberg News reported in January. REUTERS