{"id":57582,"date":"2025-12-22T22:44:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582"},"modified":"2025-12-22T22:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T22:44:05","slug":"larry-ellison-gives-40bn-personal-backing-to-warner-bros-discovery-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582","title":{"rendered":"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=4df74892-456a-47aa-a80f-77d1360571a2\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has agreed to personally backstop the $40bn equity financing of Paramount\u2019s $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, in an attempt to resolve doubts about the financing of the offer.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount said on Monday that Ellison, one of the world\u2019s richest men, had agreed to provide \u201can irrevocable personal guarantee\u201d for the $40.4bn equity financing of Paramount\u2019s attempt to gatecrash Netflix\u2019s deal for WBD, which is being led by the billionaire\u2019s son David.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount did not however bump its offer price, keeping it at $30 a share in cash. A person close to Paramount said the move was aimed at forcing WBD back to the negotiating table. If WBD showed goodwill, Paramount would be open to upping its offer price, the person added.<\/p>\n<p>WBD last week told shareholders to vote in favour of Netflix\u2019s nearly $83bn bid for its studio and streaming business, arguing that Paramount\u2019s offer for the whole business, including its cable channels, was \u201cinferior\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It attributed this in part to the lack of a personal guarantee by Larry Ellison, with the deal instead backstopped by the family\u2019s revocable family trust. <\/p>\n<p>As part of its efforts to persuade WBD to re-engage with its offer, Paramount on Monday said Ellison had agreed not to revoke the family trust, which it added had acted as a counterparty to numerous transactions over the past four decades. Paramount also published records confirming the trust\u2019s ownership of 1.16bn shares of Oracle common stock.<\/p>\n<p>The improved offer upped the termination fee payable in the event that regulators block the deal from $5bn to $5.8bn, to match that promised by Netflix. Paramount also extended the deadline for the tender offer until January 21, giving WBD shareholders more time to mull the attempt to hijack the $83bn takeover offer from Netflix. <\/p>\n<p>Paramount called for WBD to give shareholders more information about how it valued the rival offers, arguing that last week\u2019s filing omitted key financial analysis including the valuation of WBD\u2019s cable networks division, which includes CNN and Discovery and that Paramount values at $1 a share.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe expect the board of directors of WBD to take the necessary steps to secure this value-enhancing transaction and preserve and strengthen an iconic Hollywood treasure for the future,\u201d said David Ellison, Paramount\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount\u2019s move came as Netflix announced that it had partly refinanced the $59bn bridge loan it had obtained from Wells Fargo, BNP Paribas and HSBC to fund its takeover offer. The streaming giant tapped a further 15 banks across the globe to secure $20bn of term loans and a $5bn revolving credit facility, giving it access to longer-term financing for the takeover fight.<\/p>\n<p>Paramount\u2019s effort to derail Netflix\u2019s takeover of WBD is expected to take several weeks or even months unless WBD decides to engage with the Ellison family, said a person involved in the hostile bid. <\/p>\n<p>WBD declined to comment. Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/4df74892-456a-47aa-a80f-77d1360571a2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has agreed to personally backstop the $40bn equity financing of Paramount\u2019s $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, in an attempt to resolve doubts about the financing of the offer. Paramount [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-57582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid | Prosfunds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid | Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prosfunds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-22T22:44:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-22T22:44:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2Fcfb1eeb0-57ef-4f13-843e-8b10c038f760.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"News Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"News Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\"},\"headline\":\"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-22T22:44:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-22T22:44:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\"},\"wordCount\":538,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\",\"name\":\"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid | Prosfunds\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-22T22:44:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-22T22:44:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Funding Factories\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png\",\"width\":780,\"height\":140,\"caption\":\"Funding Factories\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6\",\"name\":\"News Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"News Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid | Prosfunds","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid | Prosfunds","og_description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison","og_url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582","og_site_name":"Prosfunds","article_published_time":"2025-12-22T22:44:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-22T22:44:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/https3A2F2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net2Fproduction2Fcfb1eeb0-57ef-4f13-843e-8b10c038f760.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"News Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"News Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582"},"author":{"name":"News Room","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6"},"headline":"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid","datePublished":"2025-12-22T22:44:04+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-22T22:44:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582"},"wordCount":538,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582","name":"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid | Prosfunds","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-12-22T22:44:04+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-22T22:44:05+00:00","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?p=57582#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Larry Ellison gives $40bn personal backing to Warner Bros Discovery bid"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","name":"Funding Factories","description":"Latest Finance News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#organization","name":"Funding Factories","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/ff-dark-logo-1.png","width":780,"height":140,"caption":"Funding Factories"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/bab8f1b00ccebe43e39ff640793108e6","name":"News Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/avatar_user_1_1693518183-96x96.png","caption":"News Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/prosfunds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57584,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57582\/revisions\/57584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/57583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prosfunds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}