More buyout play for Paramount Global -- via Edgar Bronfman, Jr.? Sure, why not?

Business news for the slow summer TV and media business news deserves a bit of juicing.

But investors might be tired. Paramount Global stock was down 2.5% in midday Tuesday trading.

Edgar Bronfman, Jr. -- who has long dabbled in the media space -- seems now to want to take a big dive.

In 1995, while at his family Seagram liquor business, he bought MCA, Universal Studios and two theme parks. Later it was acquired by French company Vivendi, which was then sold to General Electric in 2004.

In 2003, he acquired the Warner Music Group, and was chief executive officer of Warner Music Group from 2004 to 2011.

For many analysts, many of these deals were short-lived media efforts with little growth. Since 2020, Bronfman has been executive chairman of sports-focused virtual pay TV provider Fubo. 

His $4.3 billion bid for the company would essentially give controlling owner National Amusements the same price tag as the Skydance Media proposal: $1.75 billion. This would be a total package of $2.4 billion when including debt, according to The Wall Street Journal.

He would also toss in $1.5 billion in cash to pay down existing Paramount debt. Add in another $400 million for the breakup fee ending the Skydance Media bid.

The major difference so far, according to reports, is more money for those general Paramount shareholders.

Skydance's current total package deal is for $8 billion. Analysts project that Skydance would look to raise its price tag to compete with Bronfman.

Of course, the bigger picture is what Bronfman wants to do with the company that differs with what Skydance envisions.

Analysts project that Skydance's intentions are to pare down the company to its essential core as a TV/movie production machine -- one that would sell its content to any and all comers, including streaming, legacy TV and digital.

Any new Paramount deal would almost certainly jettison or sell a majority stake in much of its legacy TV network holdings -- especially cable TV networks.

Would Bronfman do the same? Or would this be a relatively short-term media relationship -- kind of like the ones Bronfman had in the past?

Bronfman’s bid will add to the complexity of an already tentative Paramount business structure -- streaming, legacy, and otherwise -- in a media business environment that has had high levels of disruption, contraction, and tough-as-nails competition.

What is to be gained here, for all parties involved? Headlines, buyouts, staff reductions? It looks like just major asset sales taking a part of a longtime media-TV-movie brand.