Paramount, billionaires, Gulf cash drive audacious strike on Netflix takeover

Paramount Skydance Corp.’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. has detonated one of the most aggressive corporate power plays in recent Hollywood history, thrusting together US mega-banks, Gulf sovereign funds, Silicon Valley titans and a political inner circle that stretches straight into US President Donald Trump’s family.

The mission is singular: torpedo Netflix Inc.’s deal, announced just days earlier.

According to regulatory filings, Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc. have pledged the debt commitments. The equity war chest — a colossal $40.7 billion — will be underwritten by RedBird Capital Partners and Larry Ellison, with additional backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Company PJSC and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners.

This line-up is extraordinary not merely for its scale but for its proximity to Trump, who, even before Paramount went public, loudly warned of antitrust concerns surrounding Netflix’s planned $72 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. On Sunday, Trump declared he would be “personally involved” in the decision-making process, a comment that raised alarm given the involvement of Kushner and the Gulf funds he cultivated during his White House years.

On Monday, the president insisted he had no particular allegiance in the fight, saying neither Paramount nor Netflix were “great friends” of his. The timing and the players, however, tell a different story.

In a letter addressed to Warner Bros.’ board, Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison stressed that his firm’s financing partners — who have agreed to forgo all governance rights — should remove any doubt about their credibility. “We are providing you with funds certain from one of the wealthiest families in the world, a domestic counterparty, while also eliminating any cross-conditionality, which should give WBD’s board complete comfort and certainty as to our ability to close in a timely fashion,” he wrote.

This package did not emerge overnight. It was the outcome of six separate overtures over twelve weeks. This relentless campaign included Ellison personally travelling to Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav’s Beverly Hills home, according to the filings.

The bid now on the table — submitted on 4 December — includes a $54 billion bridge loan split among Bank of America, Citi and Apollo. The equity will be guaranteed entirely by the Ellison family and New York-based RedBird, a “radical simplification” after Warner Bros.’ board flagged concerns about an earlier, more complex structure.

Larry Ellison — the 81-year-old Oracle founder who briefly surpassed Elon Musk as the world’s richest person in September after his net worth surged by an unprecedented $89 billion in a single day — towers over this financial mobilisation. Although Oracle shares have since slipped, Ellison still holds an estimated $277 billion fortune, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index.

Paramount’s filing emphasises that Ellison’s trust “has financial resources well in excess of what would be required to meet its commitments”, backed by roughly 1.16 billion Oracle shares valued at $252 billion, even after one-quarter of them were pledged as collateral for personal debt.

The earlier proposal to Warner Bros. had included China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. as a $1 billion partner, but Tencent has since been dropped after the board signalled discomfort with another non-US equity participant. The December 1 draft also listed an $11.8 billion commitment from the Ellison family and $24 billion combined from three Gulf sovereign wealth funds, along with contributions from RedBird and Affinity Partners.

What remains unchanged is one of the most geopolitically sensitive partnerships in modern media consolidation: the Saudi PIF working alongside Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners. This marks their second major collaboration this year, after their joint role in the $55 billion agreement to buy Electronic Arts Inc. Bloomberg previously reported that Kushner brokered the initial link between EA and PIF, positioning himself at the centre of negotiations for months.

Alongside PIF and QIA, a fresh entrant has joined the Paramount consortium: L’imad Holding Company PJSC, fully owned by the Abu Dhabi government. Its only major disclosed deal so far is a recent agreement to acquire a controlling stake in Modon Holding PSC, an Emirati developer valued at $15 billion.

In a strategic move to avoid regulatory friction, especially scrutiny from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), Paramount said PIF, QIA, L’imad and Affinity Partners have all agreed to forgo governance rights and board seats.

Netflix, Warner Bros, Paramount drive towards explosive showdown

Paramount’s hostile offer — $30 per share in cash — lands squarely against Netflix’s rival plan to acquire Warner Bros. for $27.75 in cash and stock. Netflix’s bid comes with $59 billion of unsecured financing from Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas and HSBC.

Netflix wants the Hollywood studios and streaming division. Paramount wants everything.

The battle unfolds just as Warner Bros. prepares to split into two publicly traded companies by mid-2026. That restructuring has added urgency to the fight, raising the stakes for both bidders.

Paramount’s debt package, secured against its assets, has been designed to win an investment-grade rating for the merged entity. The company is currently rated BB+ by S&P Global Ratings — one notch below investment grade — and BBB- by Fitch Ratings. Paramount’s interim Chief Financial Officer Andrew Warren told investors on Monday that the firm expects ratings agencies to grant investment-grade status based on a two-year deleveraging roadmap following closure of the deal. Chief Operating Officer Andy Gordon added that $17 billion of the $54 billion commitment is reserved to refinance and extend an existing Warner Bros. bridge loan.

This escalating cross-continental confrontation — fusing Wall Street firepower, Gulf sovereign wealth, Silicon Valley fortunes and the Trump family’s inner circle — is now barreling toward the most consequential Hollywood ownership battle in decades. Netflix may have struck first. Paramount has struck harder.

The next move belongs to Warner Bros.’ board — and the world is watching.