By Paramount Skydance isn’t backing down in its bid to try and entice Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders with its hostile takeover efforts.
To that effect, THR reports that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has made an “irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4 billion” toward the company’s $108 billion all-cash offer for Warner Bros. Discovery.
His son, Paramount CEO David Ellison, has raised the potential deal’s breakup fee to match Netflix’s $5.8 billion figure, payable if the deal does not clear regulatory review.
Larry Ellison has a net worth estimated to be nearly $243 billion, making him one of the world’s richest men. He largely bankrolled Skydance Media’s $8 billion takeover of Paramount Global earlier this year.
Paramount’s bid is also backed by the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, totalling around $24 billion. The tender offer ends on January 21st 2026.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board of directors has issued a statement saying it will “carefully review and consider Paramount Skydance’s offer,” but currently it is “not modifying its recommendation with respect to the Netflix Merger Agreement”.
So far, Paramount’s attempts at persuasion haven’t gone over great. As of the close of business on Friday, reportedly only 397,252 shares of Warner Bros. Discovery had been validly tendered, leaving more than 2.4 billion shares outstanding.
Meanwhile, Paramount is dealing with a bit of a PR nightmare as Yahoo reports that CBS News reportedly pulled a “60 Minutes” segment just hours before broadcast – the decision made by current editorial supervisor Bari Weiss and the incident drawing comparisons online to Michael Mann’s “The Insider”.
The original episode, with the excised segment intact, was then mistakenly uploaded to Canada’s Global News TV app, and the clip is now circulating online.
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