Paramount Skydance said a report saying it is working with a consortium of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds on a $71 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery is inaccurate.
A Variety published that David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is working with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority on a proposal, citing sources familiar with the negotiations.
“The information published by Variety are categorically inaccurate,” a Paramount spokesperson said in a statement to Bloomberg. “This is a confidential process, which we respect, and therefore we will not comment until the process is complete.”
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The offer, which would value Warner Bros. at about $28.65 per share based on shares outstanding, would be majority backed by the Ellison family, with Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital also backing the proposal, according to the Variety. Each of the sovereign wealth funds would contribute $7 billion, and Paramount Skydance would pay $50 billion, the agency said. Variety. The Warner Bros. board has already rejected multiple offers from Paramount of up to $23.50 per share, according to Bloomberg.
Representatives for sovereign wealth funds did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Warner Bros., controller of HBO, CNN and the eponymous film studio, went up for sale in October after receiving interest from several parties and set a deadline for offers on Thursday. In addition to Paramount, Netflix and Comcast are also expected to submit proposals for the cinema and streaming part of the business. Paramount is the only one interested in acquiring all of Warner Bros.
A merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. would reshape the media industry, uniting two of the biggest movie studios and two of the most influential news networks under one umbrella. Any deal will likely face regulatory scrutiny.
Ellison, the son of Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison, has been aggressively pursuing Warner Bros. in the wake of August’s $8 billion purchase of Paramount, which he combined with Skydance. The Ellisons appear to have the support of President Donald Trump and argue that Paramount’s offer represents the most straightforward deal.
Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav prefers to split the company in two, as originally planned, as he expects the movie and streaming assets could fetch a premium if separated from the struggling cable assets.
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