David Ellison agrees to buy Paramount controlling shareholder National Amusements

Tech scion David Ellison has reached a preliminary deal to buy the Redstone family holding company, National Amusements Inc., which would give his Skydance Media control over Paramount Global, according to three people close the situation who were not authorized to comment.

Details of the deal were not immediately available, but the move represents another dramatic reversal by media mogul Shari Redstone, who controls National Amusements and its 77% voting shares in Paramount Global.

Redstone has long been impressed by Ellison’s ambition and success as a producer in Hollywood, but last month she abruptly called off a proposed Ellison-led two phase deal for NAI and Paramount.

Under the previous deal proposal, Skydance and its financiers had planned to pay more than $2 billion for National Amusements. After the firm’s debt was paid off, the sum would have provided the Redstone family with about $1.7 billion. The new deal provides about $50 million more for the Redstone family than what had previously been envisioned — or about $1.75 billion, one of the knowledgeable people said.

Also making the deal more acceptable to Redstone, Skydance and its backers, RedBird Capital and private equity firm KKR, also agreed in recent days to stronger provisions to shield the company from shareholder lawsuits, this person said.

The agreement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The deal now goes to a special committee of Paramount’s board for approval.

Paramount Global did not immediately offer comment.