When you thought the saga of the sale of Paramount was over, there may still be one remaining chapter. The popular understanding is that Paramount and Skydance Media have already come to a final agreement, with Skydance agreeing to take over Paramount’s parent company National Amusements.
However, the Paramount-Skydance deal includes a “shop go” provision, allowing 45 days for any rival suitor to step in with a better offer. That 45-day window closes on August 21st. This week, Axios was first to report that Edgar Bronfman Jr., head of streaming platform Fubo TV and heir to the Seagram beverages fortune, may be preparing a rival offer for Paramount.
Bronfman has been eyeing Paramount for a long time and had previously floated a bid to take over National Amusements by investing $2-$2.5 billion of his own money in combination with additional resources from private equity giant Bain Capital. Any new deal at this point would trigger a “breakup fee” of $400 million payable to Skydance.
In response to the Axios report, Bronfman confirmed he was “exploring his options” to make an offer for Paramount. After ruling out a handful of fake Paramount offers circulated in reports over the past few weeks, if anyone is in a position to outbid Skydance CEO David Ellison on this deal now, it could well be Edgar Bronfman.