Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported, and my partner Matt Belloni advanced, the fact that David Ellison is looking to move forward on an acquisition of National Amusements Inc., the Redstones’ heirloom that controls Paramount Global. Ostensibly, Ellison is pursuing NAI as a less expensive workaround to get his hands on Paramount Global in order to combine the Paramount studio with his Skydance production company. The news struck me, both as a former M&A banker and longtime scholar of the Redstones and their businesses, as fraught. After all, buying NAI may seem  clever, but it’s also rife with innumerable headaches. 

Shari Redstone’s 10 percent or so economic stake in Paramount Global, which is housed at National Amusements, is worth about $900 million these days. (Since Matt first reported that Skydance was interested in futzing around with Paramount and the stock shot up 14 percent, it has since dropped more than 20 percent.) Regardless, Redstone and her bankers will argue, correctly, that NAI is worth much more since it conveys the control of about 80 percent of Paramount Global voting stock.