type: timeline_event
Paramount Skydance launches hostile all-cash tender offer to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery for $30 per share, valuing the company at $108.4 billion in enterprise value, three days after Netflix announced an $82.7 billion deal to acquire WBD's studio and streaming assets. CEO David Ellison tells CNBC "We're really here to finish what we started," positioning the bid as superior to Netflix's offer by including WBD's entire Global Networks segment, including CNN, HBO, Warner Bros Pictures, and DC Studios. The financing structure raises serious national security concerns: $40.7 billion in equity from Larry Ellison (Oracle founder) and RedBird Capital Partners, $24 billion from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds (Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Qatar Investment Authority, and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding Company), investment from Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners (backed by $2 billion from Saudi PIF), and $54 billion in debt financing split equally among Bank of America, Citigroup, and Apollo Global Management. To circumvent Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) review, the three sovereign wealth funds agreed to "forgo any governance rights," including board seats, for their non-voting equity investments. U.S. Representatives Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) immediately send letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav expressing "serious national security concerns," warning that "This transaction raises national security concerns because it could transfer substantial influence over one of the largest American media companies to foreign-backed financiers" and that "Foreign investors, by virtue of their financial position or contractual rights, could obtain influence over business decisions concerning editorial independence, content moderation, distribution priorities, or the stewardship of Americans' private data." The lawmakers demand WBD file a notice with CFIUS if it proceeds with negotiations with Paramount "or any other buyer financed by foreign sovereign investors." The hostile bid, approved unanimously by Paramount's board, is scheduled to expire at 5 p.m. ET on January 8, 2026, unless extended. This marks the second time in 2025 that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has partnered with Kushner on a major media/entertainment transaction, following their collaboration on the Electronic Arts deal. The case exemplifies corporate capture of American media infrastructure by foreign governments and tech billionaires, with the governance-rights waiver strategy representing an attempt to avoid regulatory scrutiny while maintaining financial leverage over editorial and content decisions affecting millions of Americans.