{"id":518997,"date":"2026-04-08T06:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/518997\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:05:12","slug":"paramount-skydance-confirms-investments-by-middle-eastern-wealth-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/518997\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Skydance Confirms Investments by Middle Eastern Wealth Funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance<\/a> on Tuesday confirmed that it has brought on the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi<\/a> as investors in connection with its Warner Bros. Discovery takeover bid.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an SEC filing, Paramount said that it \u201cbelieves the successful Equity Syndication\u201d agreement with the trio of Middle Eastern funds \u2014 as well as LionTree \u2014 marks \u201can important milestone in the WBD transaction process, and that the resulting diversification of its shareholder base, the potential for strategic and commercial opportunities with the various Equity Syndication Parties, and the value of the Warrants described below, enhance long-term shareholder value.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount did not elaborate on what the \u201cstrategic and commercial opportunities\u201d could be with the Saudi, Abu Dhabi, Qatar or LionTree funds.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s pending $111 billion deal for WBD would bring together Paramount assets including CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures and Paramount+ with WBD\u2019s HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros. Pictures, CNN, TNT, TBS, HGTV and more. It still requires Warner Bros. Discovery shareholder approval<\/a> as well as regulatory clearances.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Paramount 8-K filing with the SEC does not disclose how much each party is investing in Paramount Skydance. Variety previously confirmed that in aggregate, the three Middle Eastern funds are investing close to $24 billion<\/a>, with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund taking a roughly $10 billion stake.<\/p>\n

\n\tPer the Paramount 8-K filing, the equity syndication parties are composed of affiliates of the Ellison family (David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison) and RedBird Capital Partners as well as the following institutional investors: Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund; L\u2019Imad 1st SPV 2 Exempt RSC (an investment vehicle of L\u2019imad Holding, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund); QIA TMT Holding (an investment vehicle of the Qatar Investment Authority); and LionTree Investment Fund.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Tuesday\u2019s filing, Paramount Skydance also said it believes the warrants to purchase PSKY stock that are being issued to the syndication investors \u201csupport its longer-term objective of a wider and deeper public float.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount Skydance said the PSKY shares to be issued in the equity syndication investors \u201care non-voting\u201d and that \u201cthe Ellison family and RedBird together will continue to hold the largest equity stake in PSKY and will continue to be the sole owners of PSKY Class A Common Stock, representing 100% of the voting shares of PSKY.\u201d Furthermore, according to the company, the agreements to offer the shares to the syndication investors \u201care structured to comply with all applicable U.S. regulatory requirements (including FCC requirements), and will not impact the timing or likelihood of closing under the [Warner Bros. Discovery] Merger Agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Ellisons and RedBird are offering the private placement investment in Paramount Skydance\u2019s Class B Common Stock at $16.02 per share.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount and WBD expect their merger to close in the third quarter of 2026. If Paramount\u2019s WBD takeover has not closed by Sept. 30, 2026, Paramount has agreed to pay WBD shareholders a 25-cent-per-share \u201cticking fee\u201d for each quarter (measured daily) until closing. That would add another roughly $650 million to the deal\u2019s price tag on a quarterly basis.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite Paramount\u2019s assurances that the foreign investment funds will be passive investors \u2014 without board representation \u2014 and do not rise to the level of requiring review by the FCC vis-a-vis foreign ownership rules or the U.S. government\u2019s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for potential national security risks, several Democratic lawmakers have issued calls for the Trump administration to do so.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast month, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren\u00a0(D-Mass.) and\u00a0Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)\u00a0urged the Trump administration\u2019s Treasury Department to initiate a CFIUS national security review<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Paramount Skydance\u2018s WBD deal. <\/p>\n

\n\tSubsequently, 12 Democratic members of the House also urged the U.S. Treasury to scrutinize the foreign investment implications of the Paramount-WBD proposal. \u201cThis is a bad deal for consumers, and for the freedom of the press in America. It reduces competition and hands foreign-backed investors greater control over major American news networks,\u201d Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-Calif.), who led the effort among the House Democrats, said in a March 12 statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Ellison\u2019s Paramount Skydance on Tuesday confirmed that it has brought on the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,21409,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-518997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-paramount-skydance","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518997","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=518997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}