By Dade Hayes, Anthony D'Alessandro
Competitive Bidding for Paramount: What's Next for the Company?
Veteran media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. is still exploring a bid for National Amusements Inc., the largest shareholder in Paramount Global.
Paramount and Skydance agreed in early July to a two-step deal, under which Skydance would acquire NAI and then merge with Paramount. The deal, which calls for an investment of about $8 billion from Skydance and its lenders, includes a "go shop" period of 45 days, ending on August 21.
Sources familiar with the discussions told Deadline that Bronfman, the Seagram scion who served as vice chairman of Vivendi Universal and CEO of Warner Music, has been conducting due diligence and talking to financiers. Bronfman has helped build the ran a venture capital firm for early-stage media startups and was executive chairman of streaming pay-TV operator Fubo, among other occupations. It's not clear, sources said, whether his proposal would resemble Skydance's and result in a fully merged entity versus Bronfman's group which would take a significant stake in Paramount.
