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Paramount shareholder raises dilution concerns in Skydance bid

Paramount Global (PARA) is caught in the middle of a bidding war between Skydance Media and a joint offer from Sony (SONY) and Apollo Global Management (APO). Paramount CEO Bob Bakish has stepped down from his role, replaced by an "Office of the CEO" consortium comprised of three chief executives from across Paramount's top broadcast networks. Ariel Investments Co-CEO John Rogers, who is also a Paramount shareholder, finds Bakish's ousting to be a "pretty extraordinary" event during major M&A talks. Rogers sits down with Catalysts to share his thoughts on these headlines and what is ultimately being offered by prospective bidders. "We really do believe that Apollo, from what we've read, again, has a much stronger deal... Apollo has plenty of cash, a potentially great partner with Sony. it just makes much more sense to have those kind of experienced hands take over this company, pay out all of us A&B shareholders, get cash for our shares — it makes all the sense," Rogers says. "Skydance is an up-and-coming company, it's smaller. It's something we don't know whether it can work, but the price they're willing to pay and the valuations that we've seen, it's just a significant discount from the value we would get from Apollo." Rogers also weighs in on what to expect from Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett at the company's annual shareholders meeting on Saturday, May 4. Disclosure: Apollo Global Management is the parent company of Yahoo and Yahoo Finance. For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts. This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.