Yahoo FinanceOver 3 Decades Later, Barry Diller Takes Another Swing at Paramount | Analysis

Legendary media mogul Barry Diller is taking one more crack at Paramount, the studio that got away.
In the early 1990s, Diller lost a bid to buy the studio — to then-Viacom chief Sumner Redstone.
Now 82, Diller is back in the game, exploring a bid to take control of a far more-troubled Paramount Global, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap on Monday.
Diller’s company IAC has signed nondisclosure agreements with National Amusements, the holding company of Paramount’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone, an individual confirmed to TheWrap. The New York Times first reported the story.
The potential bid comes after Redstone, who is Sumner Redstone’s daughter, scrapped a deal with David Ellison’s Skydance Media last month to acquire NAI and merge with the Hollywood studio. While both sides agreed to the economic terms of the deal, there were outstanding issues they did not agree on — most notably, giving all shareholders a consent vote on the sale.
Representatives for National Amusements, Paramount and IAC all declined to comment to TheWrap. Diller was said to be out of reach on a yacht in Europe – as media moguls are meant to be in July.
The emergence of Diller, a billionaire who led Paramount Pictures in the heyday of broadcast television in the 1970s and 1980s, could be the missing link for Shari Redstone. She initially favored a deal with Skydance because Ellison offered more promises of keeping the company together — even though the deal was far less-lucrative for Paramount shareholders than a $26 billion all-cash bid by an alliance of Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management.
Redstone’s desire to keep the company largely intact — rather than allowing it to be sold for parts as Wall Street analysts have speculated it should be — has featured prominently in negotiations among prospective buyers, National Amusements and Paramount’s special board committee evaluating deals.
But Diller has special history with this studio.
He was CEO of Paramount Pictures from 1974 to 1984. Under his tenure, the studio produced popular TV series such as “Laverne & Shirley” and “Cheers” and films including “Saturday Night Fever,” “Grease” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
In 1983, he was also named president of the company’s Entertainment and Communications Group, which included Simon & Schuster, Inc., Madison Square Garden Corporation and SEGA Enterprises, Inc.
Then from 1984 to 1992, Diller left, serving as chairman and CEO of Fox Inc. and was responsible for creating Fox Broadcasting Company in addition to Fox’s motion picture operations.