Paramount Bid for Warner Bros Fueled by Billions in Foreign Money and Jared Kushner’s Private Equity Firm

(Photo Credit: Terry Renna for AP)

Paramount Skydance’s $108 billion hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery includes billions of dollars in funding from Middle East investors and Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, according to reports on Monday.

Those details emerged soon after Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison announced his company was mounting a challenge to Netflix’s WBD bid, which he called an “inferior” offer.

“A filing confirms that Paramount’s tender offer is also supported by $24 billion in debt financing from sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as well as from Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners,” The Hollywood Reporter reported.

Axios noted “Affinity Partners was not mentioned in Paramount’s press release on Monday morning about its $108 billion bid, nor were participating sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.”

Paramount’s tender offer is for $30 per share, which would all be paid in cash, compared to Netflix’s $27.75 offer, which is a mix of cash and stock. Netflix’s offer is worth about $83 billion.

Ellison and his investors are offering more for WBD while also aiming to acquire more — as THR reported, Netflix is “only buying WBD’s streaming and studios business, while Paramount is pursuing the whole company.” WBD owns the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services, as well as famous franchises like Harry Potter, Looney Tunes, and DC Comics.

Kushner’s inclusion in Paramount Skydance’s offer comes after Netflix boss Ted Sarandos recently met with his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, according to The New York Post and Bloomberg; Sarandos was making his case for why Netflix acquiring WBD would not be an antitrust violation.

Trump on Sunday praised Sarandos as a shrewd businessman, but also said Netflix’s bid for WBD “could be a problem.”

David Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is also a big supporter of President Trump.

Axios reported that, as part of Paramount’s tender offer, its foreign investors “have agreed to forgo any governance rights – including board representation – associated with their non-voting equity investments.”

The bidding war has been good for WBD shareholders, obviously. WBD’s stock price was up 5.50% in early trading on Monday, hitting $27.51 per share; its share price is up 158% since the start of the year.

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