Wall Street bankers and white-shoe law firms are losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in fees after Shari Redstone this week made a last-minute decision to scrap plans to merge Paramount with Skydance Media, sources close to the talks said.
Redstone, the 70-year-old media heiress, pulled the plug Tuesday on a deal to sell Paramount Global parent National Amusements to Skydance — even as a special committee of the media giant’s board was expected to meet to vote on a Paramount merger proposal.
Suitors in mergers typically pay greatly reduced fees if they can’t complete their deals. The Paramount-Skydance deal had an unusually large number of bankers and attorneys working on what they thought would be a landmark agreement.
“We grinded for months and months on this deal,” a banker who worked on the deal told The Post. “I feel so badly for the Paramount employees and shareholders. They really had an excellent deal and Paramount would have gotten a second chance to grow.”
Paramount shares have tanked more than 8% since news broke that the merger was called off, erasing more than $1 billion in market capitalization.
Meanwhile, law firm Latham & Watkins, whose mergers advisory practice is led by global chair Justin Hamill, had as many as one hundred attorneys advising Skydance on the complicated merger, which included Skydance both buying Redstone’s holding company National Amusements and merging with Paramount, sources said.
Throughout negotiations, Skydance also was working with three investment banks: Bank of America, Moelis & Co. and The Raine Group, according to the sources.
Apollo Global Management and Sony Corp. mounted a rival bid that also didn’t succeed. They were working with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison for legal advice and Citigroup and PJT Partners for financial advice, sources said.
Bob Bakish, who ran Paramount during much of the sales process, was also working on possible deals for the company outside of a sale with the help of investment bank LionTree, led by prolific dealmaker Aryeh Bourkoff.
Redstone felt Bakish was undermining her and forced him to step down as CEO on April 29, sources said.
Law firms and banks advising Redstone’s National Amusements holding company and the Paramount Special Committee will keep their fees as they are not paid based on securing a deal.
Law firm Ropes & Gray worked with National Amusements along with financial advisor BDT & MSD Partners. Cravath, Swaine & Moore advised the Paramount Special Committee that was ready to approve the merger. Centerview Partners and Rothschild & Co. worked with Paramount.
Reps for LionTree, Moelis, Raine and Citi declined to comment. Reps for other law and advisory firms mentioned in this story didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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