Media mogul Edgar Bronfman Jr. is reportedly entering the ring and readying a bid for Paramount Global's (PARA) parent company National Amusements. While Paramount agreed to an offer by Skydance Media in July, this news comes during the 45 day "go-shop" period when the media giant can consider other takeover bids.
Yahoo Finance senior entertainment reporter Alexandra Canal explains this news and puts into context of Paramount's current cost-cutting initiative.
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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.
There's yet another development in the Paramount saga. Media executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. is preparing a bid for National Amusements. It's the family company that controls Paramount Global. This coming ahead of the go-shop period that ends on August 24th. Our senior reporter, uh, Alexandra Canal has been, of course, tracking this for us. I feel like, like, this is it. Like at the end of, was it the Hobbit where like it ended and then it, there was another ending, and then there was another ending, and, do, do you know what I mean?
Well, it's funny you're making a comparison to a movie, the Hobbit, because I was thinking this is like a twisted episode of Love Island. A hot new bombshell enters the villa. A hot new bidder enters the play for Paramount and everyone just wants it to be done.
Everyone wants it to be done.
And look, I think ultimately that is going to end up being Skydance Media. That's something that Shari Redstone, who controls Paramount through her family's holding company, National Amusements, seems to be the most comfortable with. But crazier things have happened. This is a report from Bloomberg saying that, uh, the heir to the Canadian conglomerate Seagram company, Edgar Bronfman Jr. is close to making an offer on the media giant, similar to Skydance. He is reportedly interested in purchasing National Amusements. He's also reportedly weighing an investment in Paramount itself. So, this could potentially, uh, create this bidding war for this company. You've mentioned that 45-day go-shop period. That's something that both Paramount and Skydance agreed to, but like I said, Skydance has already laid out their strategic vision for the company. Paramount has been aggressively cutting costs, really preparing its balance sheet for that eventual takeover which is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025. They began layoffs on Tuesday. They plan to lay off 15% of their workforce by the end of this week. They're going to completely shut down their TV studio. They took a $6 million write-down in their cable companies. So this is, this is an entertainment giant that is really struggling with a lot of same things that we've seen throughout the legacy television landscape and, and they're really, uh, seem to be in a position where, you know, preparing their balance sheet, trying to get ready for that Skydance deal. Maybe that changes. I just don't see it at this point changing, but you know, again, people just want a, a, a piece of this. And you wonder,
We also had like a month ago.
Right, right. I- it's sort of, you want what you can't have, maybe? Who knows? Much like Love Island.
Yeah, I think, uh,
Exactly.
Well next up, I think Baron von Saas is gonna put in a bid for this company. I'm, I'm just gonna break out the checkbook guys. I'm just gonna make it happen.
All right, do it. Do it, Saas.
Alexandra, always good to talk some Paramount with you. I appreciate you.
Thanks.