The book is not yet closed on Paramount Global's months-long series of mergers and acquisitions.
On Monday (Aug. 19), billionaire media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. made a $4.3 billion offer to buy Shari Redstone's National Amusements Inc., the controlling shareholder of Paramount Global. diverse And he confirmed.
Bronfman's bid is an attempt to compete with the offer made by David Ellison's Skydance Media and its financial backers, which last month reached a binding agreement worth more than $8 billion for NAI and Paramount Global.
Bronfman’s offer has been submitted to a special committee created by Paramount Global’s board of directors to evaluate mergers and acquisitions, which is expected to review the offer on Wednesday. Representatives for NAI and Bronfman declined to comment; representatives for Paramount’s special committee of directors did not respond to a request for comment.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Bronfman's bid for NAI.
Bronfman's offer includes $2.4 billion for NAI (about $1.75 billion net of debt); a $1.5 billion investment on Paramount's balance sheet to pay down debt; and $400 million for a breakup fee that Paramount would have to pay to Skydance if Paramount chose Bronfman's offer.
On July 7, Paramount Global and Skydance Media announced a two-part deal that would see Skydance buy Shari Redstone’s National Amusements Inc. and then merge with Paramount, whose holdings include CBS, Paramount Pictures, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks. Under a “direct shopping” provision in that agreement, Paramount Global has the right to request a better offer within a 45-day period, ending at 11:59 p.m. ET on August 21.
Bronfman is currently the CEO of Fubo, a sports-focused pay-TV streaming service that last week won a legal victory over the Venu sports joint venture between Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp. after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking Venu’s launch and siding with Fubo’s antitrust arguments. Bronfman was chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group from 2004 to 2012, stepping down after it was acquired by Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries. Before WMG, he was CEO of Seagram before selling that company to Vivendi.
