A $43 billion offer to acquire Paramount Global from a group purporting to be an investment firm appears to be a hoax that tricked numerous news outlets on Wednesday.
The ruse started with a press release issued by “Apex Capital Trust,” which was published by Business Wire and widely reported on by leading publications like Reuters, the New York Post, Deadline Hollywood, The Streamable, IndieWire, The Wrap and Variety. The Desk originally published a story on the purported bid, citing Reuters as the source of the information. Social media platform LinkedIn also published an article on the purported bid, aggregating reports that were posted by some of its users.
- LinkedIn pulled its article after The Desk reached out to an editor at the website. A web address for the story now resolves to the main LinkedIn News portal.
- Variety and The Wrap amended their stories after being contacted by The Desk about the dubious nature of the press release.
- Deadline amended its story late Wednesday afternoon, noting that the bid “had been covered earlier in the day by Bloomberg, Reuters and other outlets,” though Deadline’s original story did not cite Reuters or Bloomberg as sources.
- IndieWire updated its story after the ruse became apparent; its earlier headline that claimed the “new Paramount bidder’s deal sounds too good to pass up” was edited to read that the “$43 billion Paramount bid looks like a big hoax.”
- Reuters withdrew the story late Wednesday afternoon, promising additional reporting on the matter. By Wednesday evening, a new story was published that described Apex Capital Trust as a “mystery bidder,” and which downplayed the news organization’s role in spreading the hoax. (Several editors at Reuters have not yet returned a request for comment.)
According to the original press, Apex Capital Trust offered $43 billion in cash to buy Paramount’s majority shareholder, National Amusements, and the rest of Paramount’s non-voting Class B stock. It also promised to pay Skydance Media a $400 million break-up fee that would allow Paramount to move on from their offer to merge the production firm with the entertainment giant, as well as an infusion of $10 billion in capital.
Related: How everyone got fooled by a fake $43 billion “bid” for Paramount
The press release included links to various websites purporting to be associated with Apex Capital Trust, some of which were registered with domain seller GoDaddy within the past month. A LinkedIn profile for an attorney listed as representing Apex Capital appeared to be modified within the past few weeks, and originally listed the attorney as having connections to Russia. The attorney’s profile includes a link to a web domain associated with “Elwood Law,” which bills itself as a “boutique law firm representing businesses and investors in corporate and securities transactions.” The web address for the law firm is different from one listed in the Oregon State Bar directory for the attorney, with the latter resolving to a default GoDaddy landing page.
After news organizations published stories on the fake bid, Business Wire transmitted a “Kill” order for the press release, which withdrew it from circulation. A kill order is issued when a news organization or wire service has reason to believe that information that was previously published has changed or is no longer reliable.
