Paramount Global Sells 13% Stake in India’s Viacom18 to Reliance for $517 Million

A supermarket which has been most expensive for basics over the last month has slashed prices for Easter.

Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software has acquired Gearbox Entertainment, the company behind the Borderlands franchise, for $460 million in an all-stock deal with Embracer, the latest big deal in the video game business.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Take-Two Interactive has acquired video game developer Gearbox, the maker of the “Borderlands” franchise, from Embracer Group for $460 million. Per Take Two, the company “expects the transaction to deepen its successful relationship with Gearbox Entertainment and to provide increased financial benefits through a fully-integrated operational structure.” As part of the deal, Take-Two will acquire Gearbox IP, including “Borderlands” and “Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands” franchises, games published by Take-Two’s 2K Games, as well as “Homeworld,” “Risk of Rain,” “Brothers in Arms” and “Duke Nukem.” Currently, Gearbox has six “key interactive entertainment projects in various stages of development,” per Take Two, which includes five sequels, two from “Borderlands” and “Homeworld” universes, and at least one “exciting new intellectual property,” all of which have been acquired in the sale.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Paramount Global‘s debt rating was cut to junk status by credit-rating agency S&P Global, which cited the media conglomerate’s ongoing challenges with free cash flow generation relative to its debt. S&P on Wednesday said it expects Paramount Global’s free operating cash flow-to-debt will remain “well below” 10% through 2025, and that adjusted leverage (debt-to-equity ratio) will stay above 3.5 times through then.

EXCLUSIVE: Two nights before Cillian Murphy won the Best Actor Oscar for the Universal Pictures blockbuster Oppenheimer, the studio completed a preemptive acquisition for the Mark A. Bradley book Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America. It’s an epic story of a corrupt union leader who murders a rival and is taken down by the lawyer son of the slain coal miner. It will be scripted as a starring and producing vehicle for Murphy.

George Harrison and Eric Clapton, has sold for almost £3million at auction.The collection included letters from when she was in a “love triangle” with Harrison and Clapton, along with artwork, photos and more.The internationally famous fashion model has been cited as the inspiration behind classic rock songs like ‘Something’, ‘Layla’ and ‘Wonderful Tonight’.The full collection sold for a total of £2,818,184 at auction, which was led by the original artwork Clapton chose for the cover of Derek and the Dominos’ 1970 album ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’.The artwork was estimated to fetch between £40,000 and £60,000, but went for £1,976,000 after a prolonged bidding battle, according to The Guardian.The collection went on public display at auction house Christie’s London headquarters, before going up for sale.How Pattie Boyd inspired some of the 20th century's greatest love songs. As mementoes from the iconic rock muse's collection come to Christie's, the model-turned-photographer looks back on her relationships with two legendary songwriters.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer What does the future hold for Paramount Global? The odds of a seismic M&A event seem to be increasing: Private-equity firm Apollo Global has reportedly offered $11 billion for Paramount’s Hollywood studios. Short of carving up the “mountain of entertainment,” as the Paramount+ tagline boasts, analysts say the overture could drive up bidding for the entirety of Paramount Global — which is what Shari Redstone, who owns a controlling stake in the media conglomerate, is understood to prefer. Given that backdrop, let’s consider what Paramount Global comprises — and the potential effect of selling it off in its entirety or in pieces.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor The Federal Communications Commission has hit Nexstar Media Group and its business partner Mission Broadcasting with a $1.2 million fine and an order to sell WPIX-TV New York or other stations to come into compliance with longstanding station ownership limits. The commission on Thursday issued a 42-page decision in its probe of Nexstar’s ties to Mission Broadcasting and whether their business agreement violated the FCC‘s reach limit on TV station ownership. The commission’s concluded that Nexstar’s near-total oversight of WPIX’s operations gave the station giant effective control of precious TV industry real estate — a full-power broadcast TV station in the nation’s largest market.

Shares of Paramount Global popped in afternoon trade on a report that Apollo Global has made an $11 billion bid for the company’s film and TV studio. The private equity giant has been in and out of the mix of suitors, which also include David Ellison‘s Skydance Media and Byron Allen.

A planning application has been submitted for a new £20 million community hub in Marple.

EXCLUSIVE: After seeing his Amazon MGM romantic drama The Idea of You debut to glowing reviews on the closing night of SXSW, Michael Showalter has been set to reteam with the studio on Oh. What. Fun, a holiday comedy to star Golden Globe winner and Academy Award nominee Michelle Pfeiffer (French Exit).

Attorneys for Donald Trump said that they have been unable to secure a bond as they appeal his $464 million civil fraud judgment.

Paramount Global has sold its 13% equity interest in Viacom18 Media to Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries for the equivalent $517 million.

Owen Wilson is taking to the golf course for a comedy series for Apple TV+.

Naman Ramachandran India’s B62 Studios has an early 2024 hit with February release “Article 370,” and also has an ambitious slate lined up with plans for expanding into eastern Asia. B62 was launched by the brothers Dhar — Lokesh and Aditya — and is named after their address in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar neighborhood, where they grew up watching the best of Bollywood alongside arthouse cinema. Lokesh Dhar went on to a flourishing career in film marketing, distribution and syndication before turning to producing, while Aditya Dhar directed military action film “Uri: The Surgical Strike,” one of the biggest Indian box office hits of 2019.

Naman Ramachandran India premieres of France’s “The Taste of Things” and Korea’s “Exhuma” will open and close respectively the first edition of India’s Cinevesture International Film Festival. Tran Anh Hung won best director at Cannes 2023 for “The Taste of Things,” which was subsequently submitted as France’s official entry to the Oscars’ international feature category.

Meghan Markle has reportedly hired a UK-based PR person, sparking questions like "Why now? " This is the first time Prince Harry and Meghan have had a UK-based employee since they left the UK in 2020, according to Pandora Forsyth who recently appeared on GB News. Forsyth finds the timing curious, asking, "Why now? Why the business change? " Anne Diamond, the host of GB News, suggests that the new PR hire might be planning to recommend that the Sussexes spend more time in the UK as a way to win over the public.

When a world famous cookie store opens its first shop in the north of England, there are likely to be queues. When that shop is inside the shopping mecca that is The Trafford Centre, well, you can guess the result.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ahead of its U.S. premiere at SXSW, “The Queen of My Dreams” has been sold to a flurry of international markets, including in the U.K. and Ireland to Peccadillo Pictures.

The largest ever scheme to restore an underwater “wonder plant” to Scotland’s seas has been launched with £2million of funding.