(Reuters) – Media veteran Edgar Bronfman Jr. has withdrawn from the race for Paramount Global, clearing the way for Skydance Media to take control of Shari Redstone’s empire and ending one of the most chaotic media bidding wars in recent history.

Paramount and David Ellison’s Skydance signed a merger deal in early July. The agreement included a 45-day “go-shop” period to consider other offers. A special board committee extended the deadline for Bronfman Jr.’s consortium to Sept. 5.

The special Paramount board committee has said it has concluded the “go-shop” period and expects the deal with Skydance to close in the first half of 2025.

Here are the key events in the takeover saga:

Year Events

December CBS Corp and Viacom merge to form ViacomCBS,

2019 combining mogul Sumner Redstone’s media units

13 years after a split. ViacomCBS acquires a

49% stake in film studio Miramax from BeIN

Media Group for $375 million

September ViacomCBS rebrands a CBS streaming service to

2020 Paramount+ and launches it in international

markets. Sells CNET Media Group to Red

Ventures for $500 million

November ViacomCBS agrees to sell CBS Studio Center to

2021 private firms for $1.85 billion

February ViacomCBS changes its name to Paramount

2022 Global

December The chief executives of Warner Bros Discovery

2023 and Paramount are reported to be in talks for

a potential deal between the companies

January Skydance CEO David Ellison reportedly

2024 explores an all-cash bid to acquire Paramount

parent, National Amusements

January Media entrepreneur Byron Allen submits a

2024 $30-billion offer for Paramount, including

debt and equity

March India’s Reliance Industries agrees to buy

2024 Paramount’s entire 13.01% stake in local

entertainment network Viacom18 Media, for

about $517 million

March Apollo Global Management reportedly offers to

2024 buy Paramount Pictures film studio for $11

billion

April Paramount’s board reportedly agrees to enter

2024 into exclusive merger talks with Skydance

April Paramount replaces CEO Bob Bakish with an

2024 office of CEO comprising CBS President and

CEO George Cheeks, Paramount Pictures studio

chief Brian Robbins and Chris McCarthy, head

of Showtime, MTV and other networks

June 2024 Edgar Bronfman Jr., former chairman of Warner

Music, reportedly expresses an interest in

buying National Amusements, Paramount’s

controlling shareholder

June 2024 Sumner’s daughter and National Amusements

President Shari Redstone abruptly ends talks

with Skydance

July 2024 Barry Diller’s digital media conglomerate,

IAC, reportedly explores a bid for Paramount

and enters into non-disclosure agreements

with National Amusements

July 2024 National Amusements reportedly reaches a

preliminary deal to sell its controlling

interest in Paramount to Skydance

July 2024 Skydance Media and Paramount agree to merge

in a two-step process, offering shareholders

$4.5 billion in cash or stock

August Paramount says it wrote down the value of its

2024 cable networks by nearly $6 billion and will

cut 15% of its U.S. workforce

August Edgar Bronfman Jr. submits a roughly

2024 $4.3-billion bid to take over Paramount

Global through the acquisition of National

Amusements

August Edgar Bronfman Jr. sweetens his offer to $6

2024 billion for National Amusements and a

minority stake in Paramount

Edgar Bronfman Jr. says his

August bidding group has informed Paramount’s

2024 special board committee of its decision to

drop out of the process. The committee says

it has concluded the “go-shop” period and

expects the deal with Skydance to close in

the first half of 2025

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik, Priyanka.G and Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Devika Syamnath, Shinjini Ganguli, Alan Barona and Pooja Desai)

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