Edgar Bronfman Jr. has upped his bid for Paramount Global, attempting to pry the Shari Redstone-controlled company away from David Ellison's Skydance. They signed a merger agreement in July, but that was contingent on no better, or at least remotely intriguing, bid for Par landing before midnight tonight.
Media mogul Edgar Bronfman makes $4.3 billion bid for Paramount Global
Bronfman's initial offer, made Monday night, was worth $4.3 billion. He has now revised that to $6 billion. There's the same $2.4 billion for Shari Redstone's holding company National Amusements, which controls Paramount, plus another $3.2 billion. About $1.5 billion would help pay down debt. Bronfman reportedly wants the remaining $1.7 billion to be offered to Paramount's Class B nonvoting shareholders. They would be able to redeem shares on a pro rata basis for that amount at $16 per share.
That price is higher than the $15 Skydance offered, but Skydance is buying many more shares, up to $4.5 billion worth.
The review comes as a special committee of Paramount's board met multiple times to consider Bronfman's offer ahead of an 11:59 p.m. ET deadline that would have ended the 45-day go-shop period included in the Paramount-Skydance deal. It gave other parties the opportunity to step in. If Paramount liked other offers, it could extend them twice for 15 days. Deadline just reported that the offer was good enough for Paramount to extend.
