Investor sues to block Skydance-Paramount $12b merger

The news: Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount Global is being challenged in a lawsuit targeting media mogul Shari Redstone, her holding company National Amusements, Paramount board members, Skydance and its CEO, David Ellison.

The numbers: Filed in Delaware’s Chancery Court by investor Scott Baker, the suit claims the USD8 billion ($12.22 billion) merger will cost Paramount’s shareholders over US$1.6 billion, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

The context: The complaint labels Redstone as a "relentless controlling stockholder" forcing an unfair transaction to rescue her "floundering" investment. It denounces Redstone's control over Paramount’s board and says the deal is “history repeating itself” from the CBS-Viacom merger that created Paramount and led to extensive litigation.

“The Paramount board is packed with Redstone insiders, over whom she exercises control,” the suit says, according to Bloomberg. “The directors were well aware of Redstone’s modus operandi of removing directors when she was not satisfied with them; and it is reasonable to infer that this thought weighed on the decisions they made.”