Shari Redstone has agreed to sell the Hollywood group Paramount to the independent film studio Skydance, marking the end of her family's involvement in the company founded by her grandfather in 1936.

The merger, which values the new company at $28 billion, concludes a turbulent eight-month process during which Redstone negotiated with various potential buyers, including the private equity group Apollo and Sony.

Only weeks earlier, Redstone had blocked a deal with Skydance, which is led by billionaire David Ellison and backed by U.S. private equity groups such as RedBird, at the last minute. The completion of the transaction is expected in the first half of 2025.

The sale transfers the Paramount film studio, which has produced classic films such as "The Godfather," "Titanic," "Chinatown," and "Indiana Jones," from the Redstone family to Ellison's company. David Ellison's father is Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle and one of the richest people in the world.

Given the changes in the industry, we want to strengthen Paramount for the future while ensuring that content remains king," said Redstone. "Our hope is that the transaction with Skydance will continue Paramount's success in this rapidly changing environment.

According to the terms of the agreement, Skydance will invest approximately 8 billion US dollars to acquire Paramount. In a two-stage process, Skydance will pay 2.4 billion US dollars to buy National Amusements, which holds nearly 80 percent of the voting shares in Paramount.

Subsequently, Skydance will merge with Paramount. The common shareholders of Paramount will receive 15 US dollars per share, while the holders of Class A shares will receive 23 US dollars per share.

Skydance, an independent studio founded in 2010 by the 41-year-old Ellison, has produced blockbusters such as 'Top Gun: Maverick,' 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' and 'Jack Reacher: No Way Back.'

Although it took months to finalize the deal, Ellison and Redstone found common ground early on. Both had demanding fathers—Sumner Redstone said more than once that his daughter would never run his company—and both loved the Paramount studio lot on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, according to people close to the executives.

I am incredibly grateful to Shari Redstone and her family for trusting us to lead Paramount," said Ellison, who will become the group's CEO and chairman.

After the death of her father in 2020, Redstone took over the company. She made efforts to challenge Netflix and other streaming services with the launch of Paramount+, which caused billions in losses.

The future of Paramount+ will be one of the urgent questions for Jeff Shell, the former CEO of NBC, who will become the president of the newly combined company.

With increasing losses last year, then-CEO Bob Bakish cut the company's dividend, which unsettled investors and strained Redstone’s own finances. Soon after, she began to explore her strategic options.

During a chaotic, publicly conducted process with multiple competing offers, Bakish and four board members left the company due to disagreements with Redstone.

As part of the agreement reached on Sunday, Paramount's advisers have 45 days to review competing offers for the company.

In the weeks since the failure of the previous Skydance deal, other potential bidders have emerged, including media mogul Barry Diller and media executive and Seagram heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. The US private equity group Apollo, along with Sony, had also offered to buy Paramount at a valuation of $26 billion.

The recapitalization of Paramount and the combination with Skydance under the leadership of David Ellison will be an important moment in the entertainment industry, at a time when established media companies are increasingly challenged by technological disintermediation," said Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird and Ellison's key partner in the deal.