The two sides have been deep in discussions during and after a one-month exclusive negotiating period in April and Redstone at one point had favored the deal, which would have paid her a premium, and kept the businesses together, at least initially. The transaction was for Skydance to acquire Redstone’s family holding company NAI, which controls Paramount, and then see Par and Skydance merge.
As of this weekend talks were intense but there were a few major sticking points, one said to be over which party party would assume legal liabilities in the case of shareholders lawsuits.
Paramount Global stockholders vocally disliked the deal from the start and threatened to sue. Skydance, backed by Larry Ellison and Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital, revised the deal several times to sweetened the pot for them, but they still weren’t enamored.
Meanwhile, a few other bidders had emerged to acquire Shari Redstone’s controlling stake in a deal that would be a change of control of the publicly traded company, but not a merger. Producer Steven Paul put together a group of deep-pocketed investors and is interested. And former Universal chief Edgar Bronfman, Jr., backed by Bain Capital, is also looking at a deal.
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