Paramount Shareholder Mario Gabelli Is Still Mulling Lawsuit Over Skydance Deal

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Billionaire investor Mario Gabelli still has not decided whether he’ll mount a legal challenge to Skydance Media‘s merger with Paramount Global.

Gabelli is the founder, chairman and CEO of GAMCO Investors, which represents clients who own about 12.5% of the Class A voting shares of Paramount Global.

That makes the firm and its clients the largest Class A shareholder group after Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. (NAI), Paramount’s controlling shareholder.

In an FCC filing, a lawyer representing the Gabelli Value 25 Fund and its affiliated funds, investment advisers and investors requested that the commission “defer resolution” of whether to transfer CBS’s broadcast licenses to the new ownership group comprising Skydance and RedBird Capital Partners until the investment firm has “determined whether to initiate litigation against Paramount’s board of directors, NAI, and/or Skydance for breach of fiduciary duty (or aiding and abetting) under Delaware law and/or whether the transaction violates federal law.” Reps for Paramount Global, Skydance and NAI declined to comment.