What happened
Shares of Paramount Global (PARA -0.23%) (formerly ViacomCBS) were up 9.8% as of 12:31 p.m. ET on Monday. This performance is noteworthy on a day when the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.3% at the time of this writing.
The move follows comments made at a recent investor conference that might suggest Paramount Global is open to being acquired.
PARA data by YCharts.
So what
During the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom conference on March 8, Paramount Global CEO Robert Bakish said, "Our investment strategy is increasing optionality because we're gaining more and more control over high-quality content."
Investors are taking that as a cue that management might be open to a sale. Paramount Global has previously been linked to possible offers by large streaming providers like Amazon and Apple. Last year, Amazon acquired MGM for $8.45 billion, which gives Amazon a treasure trove of more than 4,000 films to bring to Prime Video. It would take a large company with cash to burn to buy Paramount, given its market cap of $22 billion.
Paramount Global has been active on the dealmaking front lately. The company already has the iconic Hollywood studio, with a movie catalog that goes back 110 years, but it's expanding with more. Last year, it acquired a majority interest in Fox TeleColombia and Estudios TeleMéxico from Walt Disney.
Image source: Getty Images.
Now what
Paramount's deep content library would obviously be worth a lot to one of the top streaming platforms, as Amazon's MGM deal suggests.
But this is all speculation at this point. Meanwhile, Paramount Global is doing well on its own. The company reported a blockbuster fourth quarter, with revenue increasing 16% year over year. Paramount+ was the star of the show, with revenue up 84% year over year driven by strong subscriber growth.
