Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, an ally of US President Donald Trump and one of the richest men in the world, pledged on Monday to provide $40.4 billion to help finance his son’s hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the owner of CNN, HBO Max, and other major media assets.
The billionaire’s personal financing guarantee was announced in a press release issued by Paramount Skydance, a company headed by David Ellison, Larry Ellison’s son.
“Paramount has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to acquiring WBD,” David Ellison said in a statement. “Our $30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer was on December 4th, and continues to be, the superior option to maximize value for WBD shareholders.”
Paramount launched its $108 billion effort to take over Warner Bros. earlier this month, days after Netflix and Warner Bros. leadership announced a proposed merger deal. Antitrust advocates have warned that either merger would be destructive for journalism, television writers, media industry competition, and consumers.
Paramount added Larry Ellison’s personal funding pledge to its offer after Warner Bros. board members raised concerns about the initial proposal, pointing specifically to the absence of a concrete guarantee of the billionaire executive’s backing. Larry Ellison’s net worth is estimated to be around $243 billion.
“The ability to deal directly with Larry if there was an issue to close would be critical,” Warner Bros. board chair Samuel Di Piazza Jr. told CNBC last week. “Otherwise closing might not happen.”
News of Larry Ellison’s direct intervention in Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. came amid mounting concerns over media consolidation into the hands of a few right-wing billionaires and the Trump administration’s growing political influence at the nation’s news networks.
Last week, TikTok’s Chinese owner signed a deal giving Larry Ellison’s company and other investors an 80% stake in a newly formed US TikTok entity.
On Sunday, chaos and outrage erupted at CBS News after editor-in-chief Bari Weiss spiked a “60 Minutes” segment on El Salvador’s CECOT prison shortly before it was set to air. Sharyn Alfonsi, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who led the segment, accused Weiss of making a “political” decision to prevent the airing of a report that would have reflected badly on the Trump administration. Paramount Skydance is the owner of CBS News.
“It’s hard to ignore that this happened just as Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. was slipping away,” The American Prospect’s David Dayen wrote late Sunday. “Time to please the king again.”
Journalist and media critic Jennifer Schulze warned Monday that “Larry Ellison is a threat to journalism and democracy.”
“Yesterday we saw the Ellison-owned CBS kill an important news story for being too critical of Trump,” Schulze wrote. “Now Ellison is making another move to try to win control of CNN.”
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