Last-Ditch Bidder for Paramount Responds to Skydance Allegations It Misrepresented Financing, Claims It ‘Rushed’ Term Sheet Identifying Potential Partners

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Investment group Project Rise Partners, which has been trying to mount an effort to swoop in to buy Paramount Global and derail Skydance Media’s deal for the media company, has responded to Skydance allegations that PRP “fraudulently misrepresented” its financing and adviser partnerships.

In January, Project Rise Partners submitted a letter to Paramount’s board with an offer it claimed was valued at $13.5 billion — and which PRP said was superior to the $8 billion bid from Skydance and RedBird Capital Partners (and backed by Oracle founder Larry Ellison, father of Skydance CEO David Ellison).

According to PRP, its offer for Paramount Global is $8.8 billion, plus $5 billion “for restructuring of debt, if needed to ensure Paramount’s financial stability.” The special committee established by the Paramount board to evaluate M&A overtures rejected Project Rise’s proposal, saying the go-shop window for considering competing bids had closed.

Last month, lawyers for New York City pension funds filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking to block the Skydance-Paramount transaction, alleging the Paramount board (specifically, controlling shareholder Shari Redstone) failed to get the maximum value from a sale for other Paramount investors by refusing to consider Project Rise’s rival bid.