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The Secret History of the Paramount Deal

What the merger’s 600-page proxy filing reveals about who wanted Paramount (Zaz! Apollo! The mysterious “Party F”!) and how they managed to lose to David Ellison’s Skydance.

david ellison
You may not like the Ellison/RedBird deal for Paramount, but you can’t say that any stone was left unturned in pursuit of the ultimate buyer for the company. Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
November 6, 2024

As a former M&A guy, I always look forward to the “Background of the Transaction” section of the proxy, which is usually filed when there is a material transaction involving a public company—a merger, a move to go private, or some other change of control. And so, I’ve been salivating to dive into the proxy related to the David Ellison-RedBird Capital takeover of Paramount Global.