A mere weekend after Netflix announced they would be acquiring Warner Bros. for the sum of approximately $72 billion, Paramount Skydance has come out swinging, offering a larger, all-cash bid for shareholders that equates to $108.4 billion. The deal would be “backstopped” by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital, “in addition to debt fully committed by” Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo.
David Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Paramount, claims, “We believe our offer will create a stronger Hollywood. It is in the best interests of the creative community, consumers and the movie theater industry. We believe they will benefit from the enhanced competition, higher content spend and theatrical release output, and a greater number of movies in theaters as a result of our proposed transaction.”
Not mentioned in the press release is Affinity Partners, the private equity firm owned by Donald Trump‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner, which Axios reports is one of the companies backing the new bid, alongside several sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. Saudi Arabia and Affinity had previously partnered on the acquisition of Electronic Arts, while Ellison’s father Larry is a major Trump supporter.
Incidentally, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos reportedly met with Trump to discuss the potential acquisition of Warner Bros., and was under the impression he would approve the deal. However, Trump was quoted this weekend as saying the subsequent rise in Netflix’s market share “could be a problem,” and that he would become involved in the decision to approve the deal.
Whatever the outcome will be, it remains unlikely to change many detractors’ opinion of Warner Bros. being acquired by another film company. Last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren released a statement calling the Netflix deal an “anti-monopoly nightmare,” while reminding readers of an “apparent political favoritism in the Trump administration’s handling of media mergers.”
