WBD Wants Larry Ellison’s Signature on Paramount Skydance’s All-Cash Bid
December 18, 2025
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board wants to see Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s personal signature attached to Paramount Skydance’s all-cash $77.9 billion hostile bid (plus outstanding debt) to shareholders.
The board of the media giant, with assets that include Warner Bros. Studios, HBO, HBO Max and Turner, questions Paramount’s ability to fund the massive bid, including a lack of transparency on the funding sources, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the situation.
“Warner is saying it can’t know if Paramount’s all-cash bid will close unless the Ellisons disclose more about the trust or sign a deeper commitment,” the WSJ reported. Larry Ellison is one of the wealthiest people in the world.
In a separate investor post, WBD contends Paramount’s most recent proposal includes a $40.65 billion equity commitment, for which it claims there is no Ellison family commitment of any kind.
“Instead, [Paramount] propose[s] that [we] rely on an unknown and opaque revocable trust for the certainty of this crucial deal funding,” WBD said in the post. “Despite having been told repeatedly by how important a full and unconditional financing commitment from the Ellison family was — and despite their own ample resources, as well as multiple assurances by [Paramount] during our strategic review process that such a commitment was forthcoming — the Ellison family has chosen not to backstop the [Paramount] offer.”
On its own, Paramount lacks the fiscal standing to fund the acquisition with a market capital of $14.5 billion, in addition to a fiscal-year loss of $48 million through Sept. 30.
Netflix, which has an accepted 80/20 cash/stock $72 billion (plus debt) deal in place for WBD’s studio and streaming assets only, had a market cap of $402 billion, in addition to a fiscal-year net profit of $8.5 billion through Sept. 30. Netflix has never posted a quarterly fiscal loss.
Larry Ellison’s son, David Ellison, who is CEO of Paramount Skydance, has questioned Netflix’s ability to weather the regulatory process, arguing that the streamer’s stock has declined in value since announcing its Dec. 5 WBD acquisition.
At the same time, Oracle’s stock (which is the backstop of any Ellison Family Trust funding) has fallen in value as well on separate concerns over the company’s AI investments, among other issues.
Paramount’s hostile bid expires on Jan. 8.
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