Gulf sovereign investors are behind a surprise bid by Paramount to acquire Warner Bros Discovery, the Hollywood studio behind entertainment hits such as Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Friends and Game of Thrones.
The US media conglomerate made the $108.4 billion offer directly to Warner Bros Discovery’s shareholders on Monday, after the company, which owns streaming giant HBO, announced it had accepted a different deal by Netflix on Friday.
Paramount is led through Skydance Corporation by David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder and close Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison.
In a news release, it said equity from the Ellison family and US investment manager RedBird Capital would finance the proposed acquisition, in combination with debt pledged by Bank of America, Citi and Apollo Capital Management.
However, a disclosure to the US Securities and Exchange Commission names Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-owned investor L’imad Holding Company as “other outside financing partners” alongside Affinity Partners, the firm of US President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Affinity is in turn heavily backed by PIF, and recently partnered with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to acquire US videogame developer Electronic Arts.
Paramount’s regulatory filing says these companies would make non-voting equity investments and forgo any representation on the board or other governance rights to avoid tripping a review of the proposed transaction on national-security grounds by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
Paramount did not disclose the amount of equity the Gulf sovereign funds have made available for Monday’s hostile bid.
A private acquisition proposal Paramount previously submitted to Warner Bros Discovery on December 1 included $11.8 billion of commitments from the Ellisons and a combined $24 billion from the three Gulf sovereign funds, according to a separate disclosure Paramount filed with the SEC.
PIF and QIA were contacted for comment. Contact details for L’imad were not immediately available.
The latest offer of $30 per share aims at the entirety of Warner Bros Discovery. Netflix’s $83 billion offer would cover only its streaming services plus television and movie studios, and would spin off CNN and other cable channels.
The hostile takeover attempt escalates weeks of heated back-and-forth over the fate of Warner Bros Discovery, which had seen private offers by Paramount and Netflix as well as Comcast.
Trump said on Sunday a Netflix-Warner Bros Discovery deal “could be a problem” and might need to go through a government antitrust review because of the streaming behemoth it would create.
In its release on Monday, Paramount said it had the “more compelling” proposal and high confidence that it can secure “expeditious regulatory clearance”.
The Warner Bros Discovery board of directors agreed to review Paramount’s latest offer “carefully” and return its recommendation to stockholders within 10 business days. In a statement, it advised them to “take no action at this time” and said it has not yet changed its recommendation for the Netflix deal.
