Edgar Bronfman Jr. abandoned his bid for Paramount after failing to secure financing within the allotted time.

• According to sources, Edgar Bronfman Jr. abandoned his last-minute offer for Paramount as the deadline approached, resulting in the process coming to an end.
• Some potential investors dropped out, causing Bronfman's planned bid boost to about $6 billion to fall closer to $5 billion as of Monday, according to people.
• With Skydance now free to merge with Paramount, the path is cleared for the deal to proceed.

According to sources, Edgar Bronfman Jr. abandoned his bid for WarnerMedia after the company's special committee requested his consortium to submit a final offer on Monday.

Initially, Bronfman believed he had until the end of Tuesday to secure financing, but the deadline was moved up a day to allow the special committee and its financial advisor Centerview Partners enough time to conduct due diligence on the bid. As a result, the special committee had until Wednesday this week to determine if Bronfman's bid was superior to an existing merger agreement with David Ellison's Skydance Media. If it had been deemed superior, Skydance would have had four business days to match the offer.

The deal-making process for Paramount, which had been ongoing for several months, was abruptly terminated due to development.

Just a week after the media executive made an initial offer of $4.3 billion for Shari Redstone's National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, Bronfman dropped his 11th hour bid. The offer included taking a minority stake in Paramount.

Last week, Bronfman informed the Paramount special committee that he had secured 19 financial backers, including institutions such as Fortress Investment Group and BC Partners, as well as high-net-worth individuals.

Recent reports suggest that some prospective investors have dropped out of the Skydance Interactive deal due to concerns about the potential release of private details about their financing through press leaks. According to two sources, Skydance had access to the details of Bronfman's bid during the go-shop period, and some bidders feared that the Skydance team would be motivated to leak information to the press. Additionally, others walked away due to the tight timeframe given to provide financial information.

After some potential investors dropped out, Bronfman's bid to boost his offer to about $6 billion was closer to $5 billion as of Monday. However, after it became clear that his consortium wouldn't be able to provide the necessary documentation to Paramount's special committee in time for it to be properly vetted, Bronfman decided to pull his offer.

Spokespeople for Bronfman, Skydance and the Paramount special committee declined to comment.

If Bronfman had made an offer of $23 per share to Class A holders, it would have matched Skydance's bid. Additionally, some Class B shareholders would have received cash at $16 per share. However, the amount raised for common shareholders would have been significantly less than Skydance's offer, which pays out approximately 50% of current Paramount common shareholders at $15 per share, totaling $4.5 billion in cash consideration available to public shareholders.

RedBird Capital Partners has provided $1.5 billion to Paramount through Skydance's offer.

The special committee announced on Monday that the go-shop period had ended, paving the way for Skydance to merge with Paramount now that Bronfman is no longer involved.

The deal is anticipated to be completed in the first half of 2025, subject to regulatory clearance.

Paramount shares were down more than 6% in afternoon trading Tuesday.

Paramount's future trajectory can only be altered by Skydance over time.