Overview
- Larry Ellison issued a personal guarantee covering $40.4 billion to reinforce the Ellison family’s Paramount-run offer to buy all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including TV networks such as CNN.
- Warner’s board previously rejected the Ellison proposal as insufficiently secured and selected Netflix’s roughly $83 billion offer for the studio and streaming assets.
- The new guarantee is meant to underwrite planned contributions from sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, with much of the package expected to be financed by loans.
- After the board decision, the Ellisons moved to appeal directly to Warner shareholders to reconsider a full-company sale over a partial asset deal.
- The takeover fight carries political stakes as President Donald Trump has pressed for a change in CNN’s ownership and has questioned Netflix’s plan, while Ellison is known as a Trump supporter.