After This Mess, Does Anyone Still Want Paramount?

It was probably fortunate for Paramount Global shareholders that Wall Street had Juneteenth off. The rumor mill did not take a holiday.

How close were Shari Redstone and David Ellison to striking a deal for NAI, in turn striking a deal to merge Paramount with Skydance? Exactly two minutes away (from the consummation meeting), according to Variety. That’s when an email from the Redstone camp to the Ellison camp landed, saying NAI would not be moving forward with the deal.

The email was not exactly well-received. The lawyers scrambled, the expletives flew, and Paramount Global’s stock price (PARA) sunk to its lowest point in five years.

What happened? Ellison had already taken out $8 billion at the ATM.

After months of negotiations, including one month of exclusivity in those negotiations, Redstone bailed on a deal that would have sold her family’s National Amusements, Inc. movie-theater chain to the son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison.

But Redstone was reportedly annoyed with leaks in the media about how close a deal was, according to the media reports. She also was none-too-pleased as her own personal offer dwindled in favor of appeasing Paramount’s non-voting shareholders. She expected lawsuits from those common stockholders, and Skydance would not agree to protect her, and a desired vote among majority and minority shareholders didn’t come to pass either.

Still, rude — and bad business. Is there anyone else out there who still wants to buy NAI (for control of Paramount) after all of this nonsense? It’s a risk, and these processes are expensive. They are also long — just ask Ellison, and he didn’t even get to the regulatory process.

But Shari still has suitors, according to Puck. Sony, Apollo, and their $26 billion (for all of Paramount Global) are still patiently waiting in the wings. Puck also says Paramount’s special committee is prepared to do its due diligence on that potential deal’s specific governmental hurdles. Other buyers, including Seagram’s heir Edgar Bronfman Jr. and “Baby Geniuses” producer Steven Paul are both still circling with their own respective offers for NAI specifically. And THR is reporting that Byron Allen’s initial offer for all of Paramount Global ($30 billion) — or at the very least, one for BET — is realer than some analysts suspected.

Yes, BET is back on the table after former CEO Bob Bakish previously overlooked some multi-billion-dollar offers for the brand. Showtime could also be up for grabs; Bakish turned down several billion bucks for that one too. Pluto TV has been up for sale for a while now, a person with knowledge of the subject told IndieWire; Paramount denies that one.

In the interim — and it could be a long interim — Redstone is giving Paramount’s three CEOs (Chris McCarthy, George Cheeks, and Brian Robbins) 12-18 months to right the ship. The guys addressed shareholders earlier this month and have a town hall scheduled for next week. Their basic plan is cost cuts, find a partner for Paramount+, and sell some assets to pay down its $12 billion in debt.

Hey, at least “Yellowstone” is coming back soon — to Paramount Network (yay!), and then to Peacock (boo!).

NAI had no comment for this piece.