Shares in Paramount Skydance (PSKY) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) spiked Monday after Larry Ellison, the centibillionaire founder and executive chairman of Oracle (ORCL), agreed to personally backstop $40.4 billion in equity financing for Paramount's proposed acquisition of Warner Bros.
Paramount stock rose over 4%, while Warner Bros. shares rose by over 3.5%.
In a securities filing Monday morning, Paramount Skydance — led by Larry Ellison's son, David Ellison — said the elder Ellison had agreed to backstop the deal's financing to assuage fears from Warner Bros. Discovery's board. Last week, the board rejected Paramount's offer in favor of Netflix's (NFLX) bid, arguing in part that Paramount is too undercapitalized to be able to get an acquisition across the finish line.
Paramount's announcement on Monday stated that the Ellison family trust owns approximately 1.16 billion shares of Oracle common stock and that Larry Ellison had agreed not to revoke the trust or "adversely transfer" assets while negotiations remain open.
"Paramount has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to acquiring WBD. Our $30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer was on December 4th, and continues to be, the superior option to maximize value for WBD shareholders," David Ellison said in Paramount's press release.
"Because of our commitment to investment and growth, our acquisition will be superior for all WBD stakeholders, as a catalyst for greater content production, greater theatrical output, and more consumer choice," he added.
Netflix stock fell over 1% Monday.
Warner Bros., led by media mogul David Zaslav, has become the target of a multi-round bidding war in recent weeks between Paramount and Netflix for the storied film studio and its collection of broadcast networks.
In Paramount's previous proposal, which was rejected by WBD's board, David Ellison's company would acquire both Warner Bros. streaming and studios division and its linear networks division in a $30 per share, all-cash acquisition valued at $108.4 billion.
The Ellison family and Gerry Cardinale's RedBird Capital would backstop "100% of our equity commitments," or the $40.7 billion in equity required to push a deal through, while Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners and a cohort of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds would also provide capital while agreeing to "forgo any governance rights." Affinity later withdrew from the hostile takeover bid.
Larry Ellison's offer to personally backstop $40.4 billion in financing comes after Warner Bros. "assert[ed] that the only fix would be a personal guarantee from Mr. Ellison," Paramount said in its Monday morning announcement.
Warner Bros.' mid-December rejection of Paramount's offer appeared to tip the scales in favor of Netflix's proposal, which would see the streaming giant absorb WBD's streaming and studios division. Under Netflix's offer, the streaming giant, helmed by CEO Ted Sarandos, would bring Warner Bros.' film and TV studios, HBO, and HBO Max in-house.
Warner Bros.' other news, sports, and entertainment assets, in its "global networks" division, would be spun off into a separate public company called Discovery Global under a plan initially announced earlier in 2025.
However, that deal would be likely to face antitrust concerns, already flagged by President Trump. A combined Netflix-Warner Bros. would control approximately a third of US streaming activity, according to data from JustWatch, which is likely to draw the attention of the Justice Department.
Larry Ellison backstops $40.4B Paramount bid for Warner Bros. PSKY +4.3%, WBD +3.5%
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Posted by callsonreddit
25 Comments
How much media/narrative does this guy want to own? bibi putting in overtime.
Soon every movie we watch will be praying AI
Money is the dry sand under the feet but power is the bed rock
point being they refuse him because of non money related issues
Larry really said “fine I’ll personally guarantee 40 billion dollars so my son can buy some movie studios” lmao the kind of family money that makes bezos look broke
all these boomers and their obession with legacy media and cable television is hilarious.
Pure ZOG shit
One argument for a Netflix acquisition is that it isn’t buying Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) traditional linear cable channels, including CNN, TNT, TBS, TruTV, and Cartoon Network while Paramount wants everything, just mentioning this because this makes the bid prices more on par with each other.
Father can you loan me $40B?
Guhhh I need him to keep that money for when he has to backstop orcl debt
This and youtube man getting his jaw broken in the same weekend?
Surely the top?
Backed by the Saudi’s and funds the IDF. What a guy.
DOES THIS MEAN NFLX IS GOING UP
I think at this point, the fact that he’s so eager makes me think that WB shareholders are just like “this dude is hella sus, what’s he going to do”
Deng the Saudis getting EA .. now they coming for WB
That oil money tho
Haven’t they already accepted Netflix’s bid? What are the repurcussions if they back out and take the Paramount deal?
Money isn’t real. Not in the way it is to working poor. Money is a tool. A point of leverage.
But the Netflix ceo has already taken the tour!
My only concern whether or not rush hour 4 is gonna get made
Bro is trying to offload those shares before people get wise. Oracle credit default swaps keep going up and up, ain’t no way they’re gonna pull out of this on the back of OpenAI.
Daddy, bankroll me!
Why do the Ellisons want such a monopoly on media and data? Especially with such strong government ties it feels nefarious. Ellison literally looks like a Victorian era villain.
Don’t get it man. Maybe that’s a reason why I’m not a billionaire.
They are going to own the rights of all that content and give it to open ai to fuel the data center deals, it was written
These dudes REALLY want white wash is*aels rep in all media
These guys are so seriously over paying it makes up for how corrupt this all is.
Puts on ORCL!