$82.7bn deal WBD struck<\/a> to sell its storied Warner Bros movie studios, premier HBO cable network and HBO Max streaming service to Netflix.<\/p>\nWBD, which also owns an array of media assets including CNN and the Discovery Channel, has pledged to \u201ccarefully review and consider\u201d Paramount\u2019s unsolicited offer. It is expected to publicly respond, and advise shareholders on whether to accept or reject the bid, in the coming days.<\/p>\n
A press release announcing Paramount\u2019s hostile bid last week said the offer would be backstopped by the Ellison family and RedBird Capital, a private equity firm. But a regulatory filing later revealed outside funders including Affinity, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund, and the Qatar Investment Authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith\u2004\u200btwo\u2004\u200bstrong competitors\u2004\u200bvying to secure\u2004\u200bthe future\u2004\u200bof this\u2004\u200bunique American\u2004\u200basset,\u2004\u200bAffinity\u2004\u200bhas\u2004\u200bdecided no longer to pursue\u2004\u200bthe opportunity,\u201d Affinity told Bloomberg News on Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2004\u200bcontinue to\u2004\u200bbelieve\u2004\u200bthere is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount\u2019s offer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kushner\u2019s role had raised eyebrows. Trump has made clear that he expects to be \u201cinvolved\u201d as federal regulators scrutinize any deal for WBD.<\/p>\n
Affinity did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The US president, meanwhile, has tried to distance himself from Paramount and the Ellisons. He has previously been seen as closely allied with Larry Ellison, one of the world\u2019s richest men, and father of David Ellison, chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance.<\/p>\n
Trump has expressed frustration in recent weeks over his treatment by CBS News, which is owned by Paramount, and its 60 Minutes show.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called \u201ctakeover,\u201d than they have ever treated me before,\u201d the president wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday. \u201cIf they are friends, I\u2019d hate to see my enemies!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jared Kushner\u2019s private equity firm has reportedly stepped back from previous efforts to take over the entertainment giant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-320117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}