NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA, PARAA) and KKR today announced the signing of a definitive agreement pursuant to which KKR will acquire Simon & Schuster for $1.62 billion in an all-cash transaction.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement on a transaction that delivers excellent value to Paramount shareholders while also positioning Simon & Schuster for its next phase of growth with KKR,” said Bob Bakish, President and CEO of Paramount Global. “The proceeds will give Paramount additional financial flexibility and greater ability to create long-term value for shareholders, while also delevering our balance sheet.”

After the closing of the transaction, Simon & Schuster will become a standalone private company and will continue to be led by Jonathan Karp, President and CEO and Dennis Eulau, COO and CFO of Simon & Schuster.

“All of the executives at Simon & Schuster who met with KKR came away from those conversations impressed with the depth of KKR’s interest in our business and their commitment to helping us grow, thrive and become an even stronger company,” said Jonathan Karp. “With KKR’s support, we look forward to collaborating on new strategies that will enhance our ability to provide readers a great array of books and to give authors the best possible publication they can receive.”

Simon & Schuster has an outstanding reputation in book publishing, in addition to sustained, strong operating performance and double-digit revenue growth in the first quarter of 2023. KKR expects to advance the company’s position as one of the world’s best-known publishers and distributors with more than 36,000 titles across adult, children, audio and international categories.

In addition to investing in all areas necessary to establish Simon & Schuster as a standalone entity, KKR intends to support numerous growth initiatives, including extending Simon & Schuster’s strong domestic publishing program across various genres and categories, expanding its distribution relationships and accelerating growth in international markets.

KKR will also support Simon & Schuster in creating a broad-based equity ownership program to provide all of the company’s more than 1,600 employees the opportunity to participate in the benefits of ownership after the transaction closes. Since 2011, KKR portfolio companies have awarded billions of dollars of total equity value to over 60,000 non-management employees across more than 30 companies.

“Simon & Schuster’s nearly 100-year history is a testament to the enduring value of creative expression through the written and spoken word. We are thrilled to invest behind Jon and the immensely talented organization at Simon & Schuster to support their mission of delivering marquee content to readers around the world,” said Ted Oberwager, a Partner who leads the gaming, entertainment, media and sports verticals within KKR’s Americas Private Equity business.

Richard Sarnoff, Chairman of Media at KKR, added, “We see a compelling opportunity to help Simon & Schuster become an even stronger partner to literary talent by investing in the expansion of the company’s capabilities and distribution networks across mediums and markets while maintaining its 99 year legacy of editorial independence. We also believe the opportunity to create an ownership culture within one of the world’s top publishers has enormous potential to create value for all of Simon & Schuster’s stakeholders.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

KKR is making its investment in Simon & Schuster primarily through its North America Fund XIII and has secured fully committed financing for the transaction. The investment builds on KKR’s deep experience investing in content-oriented media businesses, including current and prior investments in Epic Games, Mediawan, Leonine Studios, Artlist, Skydance Media, BMG and RBmedia, among others.

LionTree Advisors is acting as financial advisor and Shearman & Sterling LLP is acting as legal advisor to Paramount. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is acting as legal advisor to KKR.

About Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster is a global leader in general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for readers of all ages, and in all printed, digital and audio formats. Its distinguished roster of authors includes many of the world’s most popular and widely recognized writers, and winners of the most prestigious literary honors and awards. It is home to numerous well-known imprints and divisions such as Simon & Schuster, Scribner, Atria Books, Gallery Books, Adams Media, Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing and Simon & Schuster Audio and international companies in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, and proudly brings the works of its authors to readers in more than 200 countries and territories. For more information about Simon & Schuster, please visit www.simonandschuster.com.

About Paramount

Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA, PARAA) is a leading global media, streaming and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, Paramount’s portfolio includes CBS, Showtime Networks, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+ and Pluto TV. Paramount holds one of the industry’s most extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, the company provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution, and advertising solutions.

For more information about Paramount, please visit www.paramount.com and follow @ParamountCo on social platforms.

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life, and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter @KKR_Co.

CAUTIONARY NOTE CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This communication contains both historical and forward-looking statements, including statements related to our future results and performance. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Similarly, statements that describe our objectives, plans or goals are or may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations concerning future results and events; generally can be identified by the use of statements that include phrases such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “foresee,” “likely,” “will,” “may,” “could,” “estimate” or other similar words or phrases; and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: risks related to our streaming business; the adverse impact on our advertising revenues as a result of changes in consumer viewership, advertising market conditions and deficiencies in audience measurement; risks related to operating in highly competitive industries, including cost increases; our ability to maintain attractive brands and to offer popular content; changes in consumer behavior, as well as evolving technologies and distribution models; the potential for loss of carriage or other reduction in or the impact of negotiations for the distribution of our content; damage to our reputation or brands; risks related to our ongoing investments in new businesses, products, services, technologies and other strategic activities; losses due to asset impairment charges for goodwill, intangible assets, FCC licenses and programming; risks related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters; evolving business continuity, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection and similar risks; content infringement; domestic and global political, economic and regulatory factors affecting our businesses generally; the impact of COVID-19 and other pandemics and measures taken in response thereto; liabilities related to discontinued operations and former businesses; the loss of existing or inability to hire new key employees or secure creative talent; strikes and other union activity, including the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strikes; volatility in the price of our common stock; potential conflicts of interest arising from our ownership structure with a controlling stockholder; and other factors described in our news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. There may be additional risks, uncertainties and factors that we do not currently view as material or that are not necessarily known. The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made only as of the date of this communication, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230807410154/en/

For Simon & Schuster
Adam Rothberg
Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Simon & Schuster
(917) 270-1717
adam.rothberg@simonandschuster.com

For Paramount
Media:
Justin Dini, Executive Vice President, Head of Communications,
(212) 846-2724
justin.dini@paramount.com

Allison McLarty, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Financial Communications
(630) 247-2332
allison.mclarty@paramount.com

Investors:
Kristin Southey, Executive Vice President, Investor Relations
(310) 593-1630
kristin.southey@paramount.com

Jaime Morris, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations
(646) 824-5450
jaime.morris@paramount.com

For KKR
Miles Radcliffe-Trenner and Emily Cummings
(212) 750-8300
media@kkr.com

Source: KKR

ECOMMERCE ONE was founded in 2021 with the ambition to become the leading comprehensive ecosystem of e-commerce solutions in the DACH region.

ECOMMERCE ONE continues to drive towards becoming the leading e-commerce software provider for online merchants in the DACH region. With Marmalade and Makaira, the company strengthens its competencies in and around shop systems, and we look forward to seeing its ongoing successful expansion strategy.

Peter Dubens

Founder and Managing Partner — Oakley Capital

Transaction builds on firm’s end-to-end wealth solutions software platform, adds investor communications and proxy solutions

New York, NY – March 1, 2023 – BetaNXT, a provider of wealth management infrastructure software with real-time data capabilities and an enhanced advisor experience, today announced that certain affiliates of BetaNXT have acquired Mediant Communications (“Mediant”), a provider of investor communications technology and technology-enabled solutions to banks, brokers, corporations, funds, and investment managers. The acquisition augments BetaNXT’s suite of wealth management solutions, expanding BetaNXT into investor communications through Mediant’s digital-forward communications capabilities, industry experience and reliability.

“Adding Mediant to the BetaNXT platform enhances our ability to be a trusted partner for companies looking to integrate communications into their wealth management platforms. We are now able to offer an additional functionality that will benefit our clients and allow their operations to be more connected,” said Stephen C. Daffron, BetaNXT Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Backed by Clearlake Capital and Motive Partners, BetaNXT brings together proven wealth management solutions – Beta, Maxit, and now Mediant – into a single, integrated platform. The BetaNXT approach to improving the advisor experience combines intelligent, user-centric technology with notable industry perspective, and a robust partner network. With an operating history of over 40 years, the firm supports more than 50 million retail accounts, has more than $6 trillion of assets on the platform, and processes more than 35 million securities-related transactions daily.

“BetaNXT’s culture, vision, and client base made the combination an intriguing opportunity for Mediant’s next phase of growth. We look forward to working alongside the BetaNXT team to grow our combined company together and better serve our clients,” stated Arthur Rosenzweig, Mediant Communications CEO.

BetaNXT will incorporate Mediant’s technology to digitize and incorporate the investor communications process into its broader suite of software solutions, which includes real-time data capabilities, cost basis and tax reporting solutions, and front, middle and back-office applications. The integration will result in a more complete, holistic solution for wealth management firms, allowing for additional cost savings and a more streamlined communications process that will benefit investors.

“We are focused on providing critical data connections for our clients, with visibility into the source and destination of all data that flows through our wealth solutions,” said Tim Rutka,

President of Beta by BetaNXT.  “Incorporating Mediant’s capabilities will provide tremendous value to our mutual client networks.”

BetaNXT was advised by Sidley Austin LLP. Mediant was advised by Ardea Partners LP and Morgan, Lewis & Bocklus LLP.

About BetaNXT

BetaNXT powers the future of connected wealth management infrastructure software, leveraging real-time data capabilities to enhance the wealth advisor experience. Combining industry expertise with the power of our proven Beta, Maxit, and Mediant businesses, we are focused on solving our customers most demanding integration challenges with flexible, efficient, connected solutions that anticipate their changing needs. Our comprehensive approach reduces enterprise cost, streamlines operations processes, increases advisor productivity, and enhances the investor experience. Together with BetaNXT, wealth management firms are transforming their platforms into differentiating assets that enable enterprise scale and stimulate commercial growth. For more information visit www.betanxt.com.

About Mediant Communications

Mediant, an Argentum Portfolio Company, delivers investor communications solutions to banks, brokers, corporate issuers, and funds. Our solutions are driven by leading technology and strict compliance with industry regulations, which allows clients to balance innovation with requirements. We enable banks and brokers to effectively manage all potential touchpoints within the investor communications lifecycle—from proxy statements and prospectuses to voluntary corporate actions. We provide corporate issuers with turnkey proxy processing, and we empower mutual funds, REITs and insurance companies with a full-service, end-to-end proxy solution.

About Clearlake

Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. is an investment firm founded in 2006 operating integrated businesses across private equity, credit, and other related strategies. With a sector-focused approach, the firm seeks to partner with management teams by providing patient, long-term capital to businesses that can benefit from Clearlake’s operational improvement approach, O.P.S.^®. The firm’s core target sectors are technology, industrials, and consumer. Clearlake currently has over $70 billion of assets under management, and its senior investment principals have led or co-led over 400 investments. The firm is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA with affiliates in Dallas, TX, London, UK and Dublin, Ireland. More information is available at www.clearlake.com and on Twitter @Clearlake.

About Motive

Motive Partners is a specialist private equity firm with offices in New York City and London, focusing on growth equity and buyout investments in technology-enabled financial and business services companies based in North America and Europe and serving five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments, Capital Markets, Data & Analytics, Investment Management and Insurance. Motive Partners brings differentiated expertise, connectivity, and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies through its integrated I-O-I approach, combining Investors, Operators and Innovators as it seeks to create value within the portfolio. More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com.

U.S. Media Relations

For news media only, contact:

For BetaNXT

Laura Barger                                                                         Justin Meise                                     

BetaNXT                                                                                 Buttonwood Communications Group

+1 646-706-5802                                                                    +1-914-319-0339

laura.barger@betanxt.com                                                     jmeise@buttonwoodpr.com

For Mediant

Robin Brown                                                                      Dana Taormina Cleary

Mediant                                                                                   JConnelly

+1-917-697-2122                                                                    +1-973-647-4626

rbrown@mediant.com                                                            dtaormina@jconnelly.com

For Clearlake

Jennifer Hurson

Clearlake Capital Group Media Contact – Lambert

+1 845-507-0571

jhurson@lambert.com

For Motive Partners

Sam Tidswell-Norrish

Motive Partners

+44 7855 910178

sam@motivepartners.com

LONDON, June 23, 2022 – Bain Capital and Nextalia SGR today announced that they have agreed to acquire Deltatre, one of the world’s leading sports and entertainment technology providers, from Bruin Capital. Deltatre offers over-the-top (OTT) streaming solutions enabling direct-to-consumer content distribution via the internet as well as data, graphics and live broadcast solutions. Deltatre’s clients include some of the largest sports organizations in the world, including UEFA, NFL, MLB and MLS.

With a presence in 14 countries, Deltatre operates globally and enables rights owners, media companies, broadcasters, telcos, content creators, distributors and other brands to create and deliver compelling solutions at scale to consumers and fans.

Deltatre has grown into a market leader in over-the-top streaming, website and app development, graphics, data, officiating systems, broadcast production, user experience, and product design, revolutionizing how media is consumed globally. It helps sports rights owners and rights holders to better engage with fans and ultimately increase monetization opportunities.

Owing to its differentiated offering, 20% of internet users globally have engaged with a digital product from Deltatre and its OTT solutions have approximately 25 million end users per day. Driven by strong performance across its core solutions and by continuous expansion of its product portfolio, Deltatre has experienced significant organic growth, enabling it to outperform the market. It is expected to generate $180M of revenue in 2022.

Andrea Marini CEO of Deltatre, who will continue to lead the business with the existing management team and remain a significant shareholder in the company, said: “It’s never been a more exciting time for the media and sport industries. Rapid technological innovation in how content is produced, distributed, and consumed has opened new opportunities for rights owners to monetize and reach their fans globally, and Deltatre sits at the heart of this shift. I am excited to welcome Bain Capital and Nextalia SGR as our new partners as we enter this exciting chapter in our company history.

“From the start it has been clear that they share many of the same core values that are held by the wider Deltatre community and that have contributed to our long-standing reputation as the premier technology provider for many of the world’s most recognizable brands. We believe that their guidance and support will accelerate our mission of transforming the way the world engages with content on their favorite platforms. Finally, I’m extremely grateful for the support of George Pyne and the team at Bruin Capital. They have been a terrific partner over the last six years, and we have achieved great things together.”

Luca Bassi, a Managing Director at Bain Capital said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Andrea and the team of Deltatre. They have built a world leading sports and entertainment technology provider and the strides they have taken to date is very much testament to the quality of their team and the initiatives they have deployed. We look forward to working with them on the next phase of Deltatre’s growth journey. Bain Capital has the expertise to help deliver value around revenue model, delivery, talent and M&A.”

Francesco Canzonieri, Nextalia SGR CEO, commented: “We are proud to support an Italian excellence such as Deltatre, a company founded and rooted in Turin capable of affirming its leadership at a global level. The investment in Deltatre and in its management team represents a clear example of how Nextalia can leverage on its competences and network and help the company in further developing its business in Italy as well as globally.”

Bain Capital and Nextalia SGR received financial advice from HSBC and Nomura, and legal advice from Weil Gotshal & Manges and Legance and Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici.

About Deltatre

Deltatre is the global leader in fan-first video experiences. Its market-leading product and services portfolio has helped redefine the way the world consumes sport, media, and entertainment by offering specialist innovations in over-the-top streaming, websites and apps, graphics, data, officiating systems, user experience, and product design. It has a growing employee community of over 1,000 members, who are distributed in key cities around the world.

About Bain Capital

Bain Capital is one of the world’s leading private investment firms that creates lasting impact for our investors, teams, businesses, and the communities in which we live. It has approximately $160 billion of assets under management, offices on four continents and more than 1,350 employees. Since our founding in 1984, we’ve applied our insight and experience to organically expand into several asset classes including private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital and real estate, leveraging the firm’s shared platform to capture opportunities in strategic areas of focus. Read more at baincapital.com.

About Nextalia SGR

Nextalia SGR is an asset management company promoted by Francesco Canzonieri together with leading Italian institutional investors (Intesa Sanpaolo, UnipolSai Assicurazioni, Coldiretti, Confindustria and Micheli Associati), set up with the aim of investing in Italian excellence to accelerate the path of sustainable growth. Nextalia is positioned as the reference platform in Italy dedicated to investments in private markets, leveraging its network and the skills of a team of highly qualified professionals. Nextalia has set up “Nextalia Private Equity”, a closed-end mutual investment fund under Italian law, reserved for professional investors, focused on Italian SMEs.

The transaction is subject to regulatory and other customary approvals.

3i Group plc (“3i”) announces that it has agreed to invest in Digital Barriers, a leading provider of IoVT (Internet of Video Things) surveillance and security products. 3i is investing alongside existing investor, Volpi Capital LLP, who will maintain a minority stake in the business.

Headquartered in the UK with offices across the US and Europe, Digital Barriers’ unique video compression technology allows live streaming over low-bandwidth environments, including cellular body worn cameras, and an ever growing set of commercial applications. When coupled with its cloud-based, video management platform Digital Barriers is able to provide an end-to-end solution incorporating a wide range of AI-based operational, safety and business intelligence analytics – the only such cloud video platform that works as effectively on cellular as on fixed networks.

The company has been a trusted partner to leading law enforcement, intelligence and defence agencies around the world for many years and will continue to serve this market. Working closely with Intel, Digital Barriers has leveraged its unique IP to develop commercial off-the-shelf products that are now being sold by blue chip telecom and security partners such as AT&T, Vodafone, Fujitsu and G4S to a wide range of commercial and public sector customers across various end-markets.

The partnership with 3i will enable Digital Barriers to accelerate its international expansion, invest further in its unique technology, significantly grow its go-to-market capabilities to support its channel partners and pursue targeted acquisitions to build out its differentiated solution.

David Stephens, co-Head of 3i’s UK Private Equity team, commented: “Digital Barriers provides a highly attractive market and growth opportunity with a strong executive team, led by Zak Doffman. The video surveillance industry is at an inflection point with a shift towards live-streaming, growing cloud adoption and increased analytics enabling greater scalability and opening up more commercial applications. Digital Barriers’ unique technology positions it at the forefront of this movement and we look forward to supporting Zak and the team as they continue to build on the company’s strong relationships with blue chip partners and expand their global operations.”

Zak Doffman, CEO of Digital Barriers, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with 3i and benefiting from their expertise and global reach as we expand our offering with new products, move towards a subscription-based model and broaden our customer base, whilst continuing to provide a highly differentiated product and market-leading technology. We have now made live video over cellular networks a reliable and affordable reality for the first time – working with 3i and our new channel partners we can take these disruptive solutions out much more widely.”

The transaction is conditional upon certain regulatory approvals and is expected to complete in Q3 2022.

For further information, contact:

About 3i Group

3i is a leading international investment manager focused on mid-market private equity and infrastructure. Its core investment markets are northern Europe and North America. For further information, please visit: www.3i.com

About Digital Barriers

Digital Barriers is a leading provider of IoVT (internet of video things) surveillance and security products. Headquartered in the UK with regional offices in the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, Digital Barriers has developed a trusted global customer-base spanning industries such as defence and national security, law enforcement, border security, first responders, critical national infrastructure, transportation agencies, automotive and mobility and private security in over 60 over countries.

Regulatory information

This transaction involved a recommendation of 3i Investments plc.