11:30 AM EDT, 04/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:

PARA's share price is up today on unconfirmed news that an all-cash bid for PARA may come from Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Sony Group Corp. (SONY 82 ***) and Apollo Global Management (APO 107 ****). We view this as a positive development for all shareholders, including Shari Redstone, non-executive chairperson of PARA, as we have previously discussed. On April 10, four independent directors announced plans to leave PARA's board, including Nicole Seligman, an attorney and former president of Sony Entertainment and SONY who left in 2016. Should there be a cash purchase for all PARA shares, it is likely that APO, as a U.S. company, would take network assets (CBS and local TV station licenses), and SONY could hold equity in the non-FCC license assets (movies, television programs, and other). Skydance Media is negotiating purchase of National Amusements, which holds Redstone family controlling shares in PARA. We keep our $16 target on a forward TEV/EBITDA of 7.6x vs. the 10.0x peer average.