Billionaire Edgar Bronfman Challenges Paramount Global Takeover with $4.3B Bid

On Mon­day, vet­er­an media exec­u­tive Edgar Bronf­man Jr. sub­mit­ted a rough­ly $4.3 bil­lion bid to take over Para­mount Glob­al through the acqui­si­tion of Nation­al Amuse­ments, the fam­i­ly hold­ing com­pa­ny that owns a con­trol­ling stake in the media com­pa­ny, a per­son famil­iar with the mat­ter told Reuters.

Rival Bid Threatens Planned Acquisition

The com­pet­ing offer for the home of Para­mount Pic­tures, the CBS broad­cast net­work and MTV is a fresh twist in a sale process marked by a num­ber of unex­pect­ed turns. It threat­ens to undo a planned acqui­si­tion by tech scion David Elli­son and his firm, Sky­dance Media.

Bronfman’s Offer and Rationale

Bronf­man’s offer includes $2.4 bil­lion in debt and equi­ty for Nation­al Amuse­ments, and an addi­tion­al $1.5 bil­lion to be con­tributed to Para­moun­t’s bal­ance sheet, which could be used to pay down debt. The bid also adds $400 mil­lion to cov­er a breakup fee to end a rival deal.

Bronf­man has argued that his offer is supe­ri­or because it would not entail Para­mount acquir­ing Sky­dance, anoth­er inde­pen­dent media com­pa­ny, a source famil­iar with his ratio­nale told Reuters.

Paramount’s Board Evaluation

A spe­cial com­mit­tee of Para­moun­t’s board is expect­ed to meet Wednes­day to deter­mine whether Bronf­man’s offer has a rea­son­able prob­a­bil­i­ty of succeeding. 

The board com­mit­tee could extend the “go-shop” dead­line to Sep­tem­ber 5 to give it more time to eval­u­ate the com­pet­ing offer.

Bronfman’s Media Experience

Bronf­man is no stranger to the media world. In 1995, he sought to diver­si­fy the fam­i­ly’s Sea­gram liquor busi­ness with the acqui­si­tion of MCA, home of the Uni­ver­sal Music Group, Uni­ver­sal Stu­dios and two theme parks. He lat­er led an unsuc­cess­ful attempt to acquire Time Inc. in 2017.