Paramount stocks soar after UFC deal and ‘meme stock’ comment
Paramount Skydance shares jumped by 37% overnight, after the newly merged company announced a US$7.7 billion deal for exclusive US rights to all UFC fights.
The stock soared throughout Wednesday, hitting a peak of US$17.53 — a 60% leap from the previous day’s closing price — and settling at US$15 by the close of trading.
The uptick comes days after Paramount Skydance announced it had locked in the rights to the UFC from 2026, and comes off the back of a 52-week low on Monday.
Paramount shares started to rise at the open of the market on Wednesday, and were lifted further by CNBC’s Mad Money host Jim Cramer’s Twitter declaration that “Paramount (PSKY) is a meme stock!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Small float … shocking.”
The UFC deal plus some CNBC commentary moved the needle for Paramount Skydance stock.
A small float refers to the limited amount of shares available to the public, and can allow a relatively small number of investors to inflate the value of a stock. This can give rise to the ‘meme stock’ label, as online groups can band together and impact the market significantly with coordinated buying efforts.
This was famously seen in 2021, when a Reddit group caused stock of video game retailer Gamestop to spike by 30 times its previous value, causing market volatility that lasted for months. A more recent meme stock is American Eagle Outfitters, which saw its price benefit from the controversy and subsequent press around its Sydney Sweeney campaign.
Entertainment conglomerate Skydance Media acquired Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements on August 7 in a deal worth A$12.2 million.
The merger was approved by the FCC shortly after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump, regarding the edit on a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris.
The US$10 billion lawsuit was dismissed by experts as being “frivolous”, but Paramount decided to settle out of court for A$24 million shortly before its sale was officially greenlit by the government, drawing accusations of bribery from Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren, who has called for an official investigation.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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