Paramount is also increasing its regulatory termination fee to $5.8 billion from the initial $5 billion.
Paramount Skydance amended its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery on Dec. 22, guaranteeing backing from Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison.
Following questions raised by the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) board of directors, the studio said in a statement that Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, would support the acquisition.
This month, Paramount presented WBD with an all-cash $30-per-share bid valuing the entertainment empire, including its portfolio of television networks, at $108.4 billion.
But Samuel Di Piazza Jr., chair of the WBD board of directors, called it “inadequate, with significant risks and costs” compared to Netflix’s proposal.
Streaming giant Netflix said earlier this month that it would acquire the entertainment empire in a cash-and-stock transaction of $27.75 per share—cash: $23.25 a share; stock: $4.50 per share—giving the deal a total equity value of $72 billion.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Dec. 17, Di Piazza said that the board would have preferred more involvement from Larry Ellison.
“Larry Ellison has agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for the offer and any damages claims against Paramount,” Paramount said in a statement.
“Mr. Ellison has agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust (which has been operating for nearly 40 years as a counterparty to numerous transactions) or adversely transfer its assets during the pendency of the transaction.”
Additionally, Paramount is releasing records confirming that the Ellison family trust holds approximately 1.16 billion shares of Oracle common stock and that all material liabilities associated with the trust have been publicly disclosed.
Staring Down Regulatory Roadblocks
The company is also increasing its regulatory termination fee to $5.8 billion from the initial $5 billion.
For weeks, there have been widespread concerns that a Netflix–Warner Bros. merger would not endure regulatory scrutiny, with President Donald Trump and lawmakers having already weighed in.
“[Netflix has] a very big market share, and when they have Warner Bros., you know, that share goes up a lot. But it is a big market share. There’s no question. It could be a problem,” Trump told reporters on Dec. 7.
By Andrew Moran
