Edgar Bronfman Jr. abruptly backed out of his last-minute bid to buy Paramount Global as the deadline approached for his group to complete a firm offer that could be a viable alternative to its pending acquisition agreement with Skydance Media.
“Our bidding group informed the special committee last night that we would be exiting the bidding process,” Bronfman said in a statement Monday evening. “I was pleased to have the opportunity to participate.”
“We continue to believe that Paramount Global is an exceptional company, with an unparalleled portfolio of brands, assets and people. While there are differences, we believe that everyone involved in the sale process is united in the belief that Paramount’s best days are ahead. We congratulate the Skydance team and thank the Special Committee and the Redstone family for their involvement throughout the sale process,” Bronfman said.
The Bronfman Group has blocked Skydance Media’s plan to complete its $8 billion acquisition of Paramount Global. Skydance and Paramount Global have been trading mergers and acquisitions since late last year. A number of industry players, from Apollo Global Management to individual operators like Byron Allen and Stephen Paul, have been making noise over the past eight months about trying to buy Paramount. Bronfman, in the final days of the Skydance-Paramount deal’s window into the deal, has gone to great lengths with the special committee of Paramount Global’s board charged with handling the turbulent mergers and acquisitions.
Bronfman and his backers are understood to have concluded Monday that they did not have enough time to hammer out the complex financial and governance agreements needed to submit a decisive counterproposal to Paramount Global’s committee. They also apparently received no indication from Paramount that it was willing to pursue another extension with Skydance to allow for discussions. Skydance reluctantly agreed to a six-week “shopping” period that allowed Paramount Global to seek better offers in the final agreement it reached last month after months of on-and-off negotiations.
The flash store provision was necessary for the seller because it was an attempt to protect Paramount Global’s controlling shareholder Shari Redstone from shareholder lawsuits because the terms of the Skydance deal were generally more favorable to her than to the company’s common stockholders. Paramount Global’s special committee voted last week to extend the flash store period for another 15 days, through Sept. 5. The move infuriated Skydance Media CEO David Ellison, who irked Paramount Global’s board with a terse legal letter sent Aug. 22, the day after the original flash store period expired.
Like the Murdochs, the Redstones were one of the last remnants of the media mogul families that once controlled the country’s biggest studios, networks and publishing giants, with preferred stock ownership that gave them near-iron control over their companies. The Skydance deal would mark a milestone as the Redstones largely exit the media and entertainment industry.
A Skydance representative did not comment on Bronfman's withdrawal.
