Tag: GLOBAL

UPDATED with statement from Paramount Global special committee

Here comes a plot twist: As Skydance Media and RedBird Capital Partners work to close the Larry Ellison-backed takeover of Paramount Global this spring, a consortium of investors who previously bid on the storied media conglomerate is mounting an eleventh-hour $13.5 billion offer.

Variety has obtained a legal letter that is being sent to Paramount’s board Friday, Jan. 24, from Project Rise Partners that outlines a new bid that is higher than an all-cash offer the consortium made during the go-shop window. The group says its terms are vastly superior to the $8 billion deal from Skydance and RedBird.

In a statement issued Monday, the special committee of Paramount Global’s board of directors that has overseen the sale process reiterated that “Paramount is bound by its agreement with Skydance Media” and will not engage with Project Rise Partners.

“The transaction agreement between Paramount and Skydance Media enabled the Special Committee to pursue a superior proposal during the now-expired 45-day go-shop period, during which representatives of the Special Committee contacted more than 50 third parties to determine whether they had an interest in making a proposal to acquire Paramount,” the committee stated. “Project Rise Partners did not make a proposal during such period, nor during the prior seven-month sale process for Paramount. It is unclear what PRP’s objectives are; however, Paramount is bound by its agreement with Skydance Media and there will not be any engagement with PRP in contravention of such agreement.”

The Project Rise Partners letter, prepared by the law firm Baker & Hostetler, notes that in light of “the market’s negative reaction to the Skydance transaction, PRP is now increasing its offer as follows: The offer for the B shares is $19 per share compared to $15 per share in the Skydance offer — a 75% premium and 27% more than Skydance. The PRP offer for the A shares remains the same as the Skydance offer. PRP will add $2B to the balance sheet. This is an all-cash offer with committed financing from credible investors.”

Those investors have largely remained mysterious outside of Daphna Edwards Ziman, president and co-chairman of film and lifestyle TV network Cinémoi, and Moses Gross, founder and CEO of real estate company ANM Group. (Gross is the CEO of Malka Equities, the umbrella company that signed a $10 billion commitment on behalf of the investors.) But sources say Project Rise Partners is also backed by titans of industry comparable to Larry Ellison and includes at least one of the richest men in the world and as well as a company partner that is a pioneer in the satellite industry. Ziman and Gross fronted the previous offer, which they say was never presented to the board.

A publicly traded corporation is typically legally bound to consider any legitimate offer of value that could benefit shareholders. The Project Rise investors fired off a legal letter in October 2024 claiming that Paramount’s special committee violated its fiduciary duty to shareholders by neglecting to consider the group’s previous $8.5 billion bid for the company. Project Rise Partners’ $13.5 billion offer includes $5 billion for restructuring of the debt.

According to an SEC filing, a member of Paramount’s Special Committee held a call with a Project Rise Partners representative on Aug. 15, which was inside the go-shop window. (That window closed on Aug. 21.) But the SEC filing says the two sides did not discuss terms during the call and that the group’s acquisition proposal was only submitted on Aug. 26, after the window closed.

The Baker & Hostetler letter — addressed to Paramount board members Shari Redstone, Barbara Byrne, Linda Griego, Judith McHale and Susan Schuman — states that the company’s Class B shareholders “would own 50% of the equity versus 30% in the Skydance offer. The PRP offer includes an independent board and normal corporate governance. The board committees Skydance plans to eliminate would be retained. B shareholders would receive a vote for the first time in the company’s history.”

Project Rise Partners additionally claims that it plans to grow Paramount Global’s headcount, whereas the Skydance and RedBird partners have indicated more cuts would come under a Skydance-Paramount merger.

Larry Ellison, also one of the world’s richest men, is facing regulatory hurdles with the Paramount-Skydance merger that would see his son, Skydance CEO David Ellison, running the combined media assets. President Donald Trump’s new FCC chair Brendan Carr has publicly raised concerns about the merger. The elder Ellison, founder of Oracle who has a net worth of more than $200 billion, has been a longtime supporter of Trump’s and has been shoring up his relationship with the president. He traveled to the White House on Tuesday to announce a separate AI Stargate deal that industry observers saw as part of an effort to keep the Paramount-Skydance merger on track. That prompted Elon Musk to mock Ellison on X, writing: “they don’t actually have the money” and have “well under $10B secured.” Separately, Trump has indicated that he would be open to Larry Ellison or Musk buying TikTok.

The Skydance-RedBird $8 billion deal to merge with Paramount has been controversial among shareholders, primarily because it values Skydance at roughly $4 billion. The new Project Rise Partners bid questions that valuation. “Skydance reported $25M in EBITDA in 2023, and Paramount purchased Skydance for $4.75B, or approximately 200x trailing earnings,” the Jan. 24 letter says. “There are no market benchmarks that justify the Skydance valuation, and no independent bidder would pay that price.”

Meanwhile, politicians like Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the House China Select Committee, have raised concerns about China’s role in the Skydance deal because Tencent, a company with ties to the Chinese military, will have a small stake in the media giant, whose assets include everything from CBS News to the Paramount film and TV studio.

“The Board and its advisors appeared so eager to conclude a transaction with Skydance, no one appears to have fully accounted for Skydance’s foreign ownership,” the Project Rise Partners letter says. “The Pentagon recently placed Tencent on a list of firms alleged to be helping the Chinese military. Regulators will scrutinize the proposed transaction given the heightened concern over Chinese control of consumer platforms and access to personal data. If the Board and its advisors missed or ignored such a serious red flag, shareholders will naturally question the thoroughness of the Board’s due diligence. By extension, ineffective diligence might explain the unreasonable valuation paid for Skydance, the company acquiring Paramount.”

Paramount and Redstone, whose National Amusements Inc. is the controlling shareholder of Paramount, have a binding deal with Skydance Media and may only be able to back out if regulators stop the merger. A source familiar with the process says that is highly unlikely. But the Baker & Hostetler letter claims that the Paramount board eliminated an option to consider superior bids from its sale process.

“In the public company context, most merger agreements include a standard fiduciary out that allows a new bidder with a superior offer to pay the breakup fee to compensate the original bidder for opportunity and other costs,” the letter says. “For unknown reasons, the Board or its legal counsel specifically excluded a fiduciary out which harms B shareholders and benefits Skydance. … Fiduciary outs enable boards to terminate a transaction agreement if a superior offer arrives before the deal is approved by the shareholders and closed. If the agreement omits such an exit clause, the Board’s decision may be deemed ‘preclusive and coercive.’ There is no discernable rationale for that unnecessary, one-way value transfer to Skydance. These ‘deal protection devices’ do not protect shareholders.”

The letter also stresses that Paramount directors have a duty of loyalty to shareholders, not to advisers or Skydance.

“Because of the Board’s decision to eliminate the fiduciary out, the outsized $400M breakup fee benefits Skydance in the case of a regulatory block but does not benefit B shareholders if there is a superior offer. After canvassing the market for over nine months, the Board concluded that Skydance was the only actionable, fully financed offer available,” the letter continues. “Paramount Directors breached their duty of loyalty by crafting a merger agreement favorable to the buyer and not the seller in this transaction.