The future of\u00a0Paramount Global\u00a0is still uncertain.<\/p>\n
Paramount\u2019s special committee on Wednesday\u00a0said it would extend by 15 days an agreed-upon \u201cgo shop\u201d\u00a0period of its merger agreement with Skydance as it reviews a competing offer from Edgar Bronfman Jr.<\/p>\n
Bronfman initially offered $4.3 billion late Monday for Shari Redstone\u2019s National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, according to a person familiar with the bid. As part of the bid, Bronfman would acquire a minority stake in Paramount. However, after placing the bid, Bronfman raised more funds to support a higher bid, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous to speak about specifics of the offer.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Bronfman upped the bid and submitted a revised offer of $6 billion, the person said.<\/p>\n
The offer looks to supersede Paramount\u2019s\u00a0merger agreement\u00a0with Skydance Media, which came in early July and capped off a monthslong negotiation process. The agreement included a 45-day \u201cgo shop\u201d period during which Paramount could solicit other offers.<\/p>\n
A representative for Bronfman declined to comment.<\/p>\n
The special committee on Wednesday confirmed \u201cthe receipt of an acquisition proposal from\u00a0Edgar Bronfman, Jr., on behalf of a consortium of investors.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, the \u2018go shop\u2019 period is extended for the Bronfman Consortium until\u00a0September 5, 2024, pursuant to the transaction agreement to which the Company remains subject,\u201d the\u00a0committee said in a statement. \u201cThere can be no assurance this process will result in a Superior Proposal.\u00a0The Company does not intend to disclose further developments unless and until it determines such disclosure is appropriate or is otherwise required.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee added that during the initial \u201cgo shop\u201d period it contacted more than 50 third parties to gauge potential acquisition interest.\u00a0The go-shop period will still expire before midnight Wednesday for all other parties, the committee said.<\/p>\n
The Skydance buying consortium, which also includes private equity firms RedBird Capital Partners and KKR, agreed to invest more than $8 billion into Paramount and to acquire National Amusements. The deal gives National Amusements an enterprise value of $2.4 billion, including $1.75 billion in equity.<\/p>\n
As part of the Skydance deal, Paramount\u2019s class A shareholders would receive $23 apiece in cash or stock, and class B shareholders would receive $15 per share, equating to a cash consideration totaling $4.5 billion available to public shareholders. Skydance also agreed to inject $1.5 billion of capital into Paramount\u2019s balance sheet.<\/p>\n
National Amusements owns 77% of Paramount\u2019s class A shares, and 5% of class B shares. If the Skydance transaction were to close, it would wholly own class A Paramount shares, and 69% of the outstanding class B shares.<\/p>\n
Bronfman\u2019s initial bid proposed buying National Amusements in an equity deal valued at $1.75 billion. That offer included a $1.5 billion investment into Paramount\u2019s balance sheet, like the Skydance deal, and also included covering the $400 million breakup fee that Paramount would owe Skydance if it walked away from the deal, according to the person familiar.<\/p>\n
The sweetened bid made on Wednesday now includes $1.7 billion for a tender offer that would give non-Redstone, nonvoting Paramount shareholders the option to receive $16 a share, the person added.<\/p>\n
Bronfman previously ran\u00a0Warner Music\u00a0and liquor company Seagram and has also served as executive chairman of\u00a0Fubo TV\u00a0since 2020. Details of his bid were first\u00a0reported\u00a0by The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n
The merger agreement between Paramount and Skydance has drawn scrutiny from shareholders. Money manager Mario Gabelli\u00a0reportedly\u00a0filed a lawsuit looking for Paramount to turn over its books related to the Skydance deal \u2014 a possible first step toward a lawsuit challenging the deal. Investor Scott Baker\u00a0reportedly\u00a0sued to block the deal, arguing it would cost shareholders $1.65 billion.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The future of\u00a0Paramount Global\u00a0is still uncertain. Paramount\u2019s special committee on Wednesday\u00a0said it would extend by 15 days an agreed-upon \u201cgo shop\u201d\u00a0period of its merger agreement with Skydance as it reviews a competing offer from Edgar Bronfman Jr. Bronfman initially offered $4.3 billion late Monday for Shari Redstone\u2019s National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}