And that is it for Sony (SONY), ladies and gentlemen, as the electronics company is out of the hunt for Paramount (PARA). We are coming to the end of the go-shop period for new bids to acquire Paramount, and the news is increasingly becoming, “Skydance, you can have it.” This proved oddly welcome for Paramount shareholders, who sent shares of the media giant up fractionally in Wednesday afternoon trading.
The reason why Sony bowed out of a Paramount acquisition is because it does not fit well with its strategy. That sounds reasonable enough, though one wonders why Sony made an offer to begin with. A possible explanation might be that it was more feasible at a lower price point.
More particularly, chief operating officer and chief financial officer Hiroki Totoki noted that acquiring “…the whole of Paramount…would be quite risky because it may not be well fitted to our capital allocation structure.”
Is Paramount a Good Stock to Buy Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Sell consensus rating on PARA stock based on three Buys, seven Holds, and 10 Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 34.99% loss in its share price over the past year, the average PARA price target of $12.07 per share implies 15.45% upside potential.
