Skydance's desire to purchase Paramount has a real threat in Sony

The quest for new, and hopefully better ownership of Star Trek continues as it's being reported that Skydance has not settled on a deal with Paramount Global. The studio is looking for buyers for Shari Redstone's share of the company, which would give whoever buys it controlling stake in Paramount. As Paramount owns Star Trek, whoever buys Paramount would own Star Trek.

Skydance represented the best path forward for a brand like Star Trek, as they themselves are a studio and would want to monetize as much of the library as possible in order to make their money back. Two other groups, Sony Pictures and Apollo Global, are also interseted but neither have been able to negotiate with Paramount due to SkyDance's exclusive negotiation rights.

Sony and Apollo Global are partnering on the bid, so it's unclear how the ownership stake would be divided, though it's likely that Sony would own the studio until they pay off Apollo Global's contribution. Likewise, SkyDance is working with Red Bird Capital Partners and KRR.

The idea with Skydance is that they would look to build out their studio offerings, as the purchase would be a merger of sorts, with the company staying private. Sony would take the company private with the purchase, assuming they get the winning bid.

Redstone favors Skydance's purchase, as she seems to believe in Skydance owner David Ellison, though despite that, no deal has been reached.

It's not a perfect scenario either way, as public companies have to bend the knee to their shareholders, making Ellison worry about his stockholders as much as the fandoms for whom he'd create content. If Sony won, they're not exactly known for their track record these days when it comes to making good films, which would hinder Star Trek's growth.

We'll have to see how it all shakes out but this could be a very interesting spring and summer for Star Trek fans.