Oracle Chair Larry Ellison says he will personally back Paramount Skydance's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery with a guarantee of $40 billion in equity financing. Ellison's son David is the CEO of Paramount. Paramount is trying to beat out a rival bid from Netflix.

Paramount Skydance has sweetened its takeover offer for Warner Brothers, with Larry Ellison personally guaranteeing $40 billion in equity financing for the $108 billion proposal. This move addresses previous concerns about the financial backing of Paramount's bid, which now includes bridge loans, a revolving credit facility, and a $5.8 billion breakup fee if the deal is canceled.

The acquisition process is expected to continue until at least mid-2025, when shareholders are scheduled to vote. While Netflix's competing offer is preferred by Warner Brothers due to its clarity and focus on streaming and studios, Paramount's bid includes the acquisition of cable networks, a key point of contention in the negotiations.

Larry Ellison personally backs Paramount's bid for Warner

Paramount Skydance. It sweetened its offer for Warner Brothers today. Larry Ellison the green to personally guarantee forty billion dollars in equity financing for the proposed hundred eight billion dollar takeover offer for Warner Brothers. So let's bring in Bloomberg Tech co-host Caroline Hyde now for more on this story. So Caroline this is getting really interesting. What I'm curious about is how long can this continue on given that shareholders aren't voting until the middle of next year. I mean this is such a Hollywood drama and we're living in it blow by blow. Now we're going to get real nitty gritty details of basically Larry Ellison's wealth of the trust. He says it's going to be irrevocable. I will not be able to start selling off bits of my assets. Largely that's in part backed by equity shares of Oracle in and of itself which is a share of the price that's been under pressure of late. But basically he's committing because that was the vulnerability of that offer. Remember there is more on the table coming from Paramount in terms of financial money than there is coming from Netflix. But Netflix doesn't want the whole shebang. It doesn't want CNN. It doesn't want the cable networks. It just wants the streaming in the studios. And so from that part all along we've seen Warner Brothers say Netflix's offer is better but also because the clarity of the financing the clarity of the financing was pretty clear from Netflix. Now they're also managing to piece together what long term financing looks like. They have bridge loans in place. BNP Paribas HSBC some of the banks around that. Now they've already got a revolving credit facility in place for five billion dollars. They've got to ten billion dollar loans on track. Therefore we know that they're going to be syndicating looking back to syndicate about thirty four billion dollars worth. You then look over to what Paramount's been doing and they've basically been saying my dad's really rich and he's going to be able to afford this. But then they were like but what are the details of his wealth and how set in stone is that. Oh and why you've been leaning on maybe 10 cent at one point. Remember the Middle East and investors. At one point it was even Jared Kushner as well who's been since dropped out. So all of this was just more anxiety around the real financing power of Paramount Skydance. And now with this they're trying to say look we are good for it. Up to 40 billion dollars worth. It's going to be guaranteed by Larry Ellis himself one of the wealthiest people in the world. But also they're saying if this deal doesn't get done we'll give you even more money. Five point eight billion dollars for gets canceled. So but other than upping essentially the breakup fee and matching the breakup fee that Netflix has already offered they haven't increased the payout to shareholders. So that's still to come. Right. Sweetening the bid. Exactly. And I think that's what many have felt is that it's being on. It all comes down to how much do they value the cable networks at and seemingly a different price than what David Zaslav thinks he could get if he spins them off. And so all of this comes down to whether or not they're going to up the actual amount. We've heard time and time again on the tech show people coming and going. Don't underestimate the competitive nature of the Ellison's and the willingness they will do to actually bring more money to the table. Maybe this body is the answer to your question. How long does this run. Maybe we do start to get an even more sweetened deal. But as you say they are extending the tender offer as well out to January 21st which is a little bit longer than they had. They're going direct to shareholders here. So it's up to the shareholders to decide how much value do I put on these cable networks. Yeah. Now does it matter what's getting taken. So if Netflix doesn't want part of it but you know Paramount will take that. Does that have to factor in as well. I guess it does from a regulator's perspective as well. I mean the also the key issue for many is the relationship the Ellison's have for the administration and some of the reporting out there has been that it's not been unknown that perhaps the administration would like a new owner for CNN and the like. So maybe they do want to see Paramount Skydance take out that sort of part of the business. But more broadly I think when it comes down to monetary value clearly David Zaslav thinks that there's more money to be got from these cable networks. Remember for Paramount the cable networks are actually basically where a lot of the profit was for the business to begin with.

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