Edgar Bronfman Jr. Sweetens Bid For Paramount To $6 Billion

Edgar Bronfman Jr. has upped his bid for Paramount Global, Deadline has confirmed, attempting to pry the Shari Redstone-controlled company away from David Ellison’s Skydance, which signed a merger agreement in July.

Paramount Merger Saga Continues: Go-Shop Period Extended As Edgar Bronfman Vies With Skydance, Boosting His Offer To $6B

That deal, however, was contingent on no other better, or at least intriguing, offer for Par landing before midnight tonight.

One did land. Bronfman entered the scene on Monday with an offer worth $4.3 billion that he has revised, raising it to $6 billion. Enough to convince the special committee of Paramount’s board to extend the 45-day so called “go shop” period for another 15 days.

The new offer includes the same $2.4 billion to buy Shari Redstone’s family holding National Amusements, which control Paramount. It still sets aside $400 million for a breakup fee due to Skydance if David Ellison — backed by Larry Ellison and RedBird Capital — are ultimately jilted. And Bronfman had already earmarked a $1.5 billion cash injection to boost Paramount’s financials. The difference her is another $1.7 billion. According to people familiar with the situation, Bronfman did not insist on how that money should be directed but he expressed a preference — that the funds be offered to Paramount’s Class B nonvoting shareholders to cash out on a prorated basis for $16.

That’s higher than the $15 Skydance is offered the Class Bs. But Skydance is buying many more shares, up to $4.5 billion worth.

Edgar Bronfman Backers, More Details Emerge In Bid For Paramount That Seeks To Unseat Skydance

The revision comes after a special committee of Paramount’s board met multiple times to consider Bronfman’s offer ahead of an 11:59 pm ET deadline that would end the go-shop period if nothing else interesting turned up. It did and Par now has 15 more days to evaluate. Deadline just reported that the bid was good enough for Paramount to extend.

The contract with Skydance gives one additional 15-day extension after the first one if there are still things to be worked out.

Edgar Bronfman Makes His Move With $4.3 Billion Bid For Paramount Global - Update