Paramount has directly approached Warner Bros Discovery’s shareholders with an all-cash offer, aiming to secure one of Hollywood’s most coveted properties. This bold move follows Netflix’s successful bid on Friday, which ultimately won over Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
Despite widespread speculation that Paramount would emerge as the leading contender for Warner Bros, WBD chose Netflix, citing a more financially attractive proposal.
The unexpected alliance with Netflix took many in Hollywood by surprise, including Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, who maintains that his bid was superior.
“Our strategy will create another substantial and thriving buyer for the creative community and talent, ensuring 30 movies a year are released exclusively in theaters,” stated Ellison.
Ellison has positioned himself as an unlikely champion of Hollywood’s future. Although still early in his tenure, he has already made significant investments in Paramount.
Throughout his career, Ellison has generally leaned towards center-left politics. However, over the past year, he has made notable gestures towards former President Trump, attending several UFC events with him and negotiating with the administration to finalize his acquisition of Paramount in August.
He also has sought to transform CBS News, paying top dollar for the right-leaning The Free Press and appointing its founder Bari Weiss as CBS’ overseer – a decision that Trump has said he approves.
Ellison said if his offer wins, Paramount would combine CBS News with CNN.
“We want to build a scaled news service that is basically fundamentally in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70 per cent of Americans that are in the middle,” Ellison said.
Ellison said he’s had “great conversations” with Trump about Paramount’s plan for its proposed news business, but he added that he didn’t want to speak for Trump, whose son-in-law Jared Kushner is involved in the deal’s financing.
In addition to former Redbird, other investors include Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Qatar and Kushner’s Affinity Partners, which has a substantial investment from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.
To avoid national security scrutiny, the foreign entities have agreed not to take any board seats or vote their equity stakes in the company if the deal were to go through, Paramount announced Monday.
Ellison also said his father, Oracle executive chairman Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, is chipping in an unspecified amount of equity to produce the cash – an amount that David Ellison said was fully backstopped.
