Larry Ellison Pledges $40-Billion Personal Guarantee For Paramount's Warner Bros Bid (yahoo.com) 45
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed $40.4 billion to shore up Paramount's bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, trying to ease financing doubts as Warner Bros weighs a rival offer from Netflix. Reuters reports: Paramount said the amended terms do not change the $30-per-share all-cash offer even as the fight for Hollywood's sought-after assets heats up, with control of Warner Bros' vast library offering a decisive edge in the streaming wars. "I doubt many Warner Bros shareholders that are on the fence or planning to vote no "were holding out due to issues the "revised bid addresses such as a guarantee from Larry Ellison on the funding front," said Seth Shafer, principal analyst at S&P Global.
As part of the revised terms, Ellison also agreed not to revoke the family trust or transfer its assets during the pendency of the transaction, the filing showed. Paramount said it has raised its regulatory reverse termination fee to $5.8 billion from $5 billion to match the competing transaction and extended the expiration date of its tender offer to January 21, 2026.
The "bid follows Warner Bros asking its shareholders to reject the $108.4 billion offer from Paramount for the whole company, including cable TV assets, on doubts over its financing and the lack of a full guarantee from the Ellison family. But Warner Bros investors, including the fifth largest shareholder Harris Associates, have said they would be open to revised offers from Paramount if it presents a superior bid and addresses issues with deal terms. Under the Netflix agreement, Warner Bros would owe Netflix $2.8 billion as breakup fee if it walks away from that deal.
As part of the revised terms, Ellison also agreed not to revoke the family trust or transfer its assets during the pendency of the transaction, the filing showed. Paramount said it has raised its regulatory reverse termination fee to $5.8 billion from $5 billion to match the competing transaction and extended the expiration date of its tender offer to January 21, 2026.
The "bid follows Warner Bros asking its shareholders to reject the $108.4 billion offer from Paramount for the whole company, including cable TV assets, on doubts over its financing and the lack of a full guarantee from the Ellison family. But Warner Bros investors, including the fifth largest shareholder Harris Associates, have said they would be open to revised offers from Paramount if it presents a superior bid and addresses issues with deal terms. Under the Netflix agreement, Warner Bros would owe Netflix $2.8 billion as breakup fee if it walks away from that deal.
Desperate (Score:4, Insightful)
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and shareholders don't want your overvalued Oracle stock.
If shareholders don't want it, why is the board so desperate to block the bid? The shareholders will just reject it right?
pushme-pullyou-fuckyall (Score:5, Insightful)
This is about CNN (Score:5, Insightful)
Paramount wants not just the movie parts of Warner. They want the whole thing, including per TFS, the "cable TV assets." That includes CNN.
Paramount wants to acquire CNN and then change its reporting angle on the current administration.
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Paramount wants to acquire CNN and then change its reporting angle on the current administration.
By the time any merger is completed, though, Trump's term will be almost over -- this one anyway. :-)
Re:This is about CNN (Score:4, Insightful)
Dinosaur consolidation (Score:2)
Consolidation of dinosaur media companies and the eventual restating the value of their back-catalog residual revenue will open the opportunity for new media and production companies.
It will be interesting when the largest copyright holders have to restate their copyright library values to 50%, 20% or even 5% of their current amount due to declining royalty revenues.
The media won't be competing with each other, they will be competing with a near zero-cost back-catalog of old TV shows, streaming shows, movie
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Anyone playing the long game doesn't give a fuck who the sitting president is, because your hundreds of billions of net worth matter to anyone who can potentially get the job.
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Project 2025 was never about Trump personally. It's a total societal transformation, a cultural revolution if you will. He is the useful idiot to the one who will come after.
Re: This is about CNN (Score:5, Insightful)
The Ellison's want to run CNN the way the Murdoch's run Fox.
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the Murdoch's
And compete with Slashdot for editing quality.
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Who cares? It's an American problem.
Google "Manufacturing Consent" and come back to us. You'll see it's not just an American problem, but the problem for those in America's crosshairs next. There's also a massive push from the pro-Israel groups to ensure a pro-Israel spin in US media, so Larry Ellison's involvement stinks, just like the TikTok acquisition plan.
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And the way CBS sold out to the Fascist sprog of Leisure Suit Larry. Those images of Larry smirking for the camera in el Bunko's lair are priceless. el Bunko thinks Larry "likes" him. No one likes him, what they see is a gumby they can bend any way they like.
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That can be negotiated. It's not unheard of to demand certain business units to be spun off as conditions for a merger.
Much as I dislike Ellison, keeping studio stuff in studios is probably a better idea than merging a distribution network (think theaters) with producers. Too many people ended up with horses heads in their beds before the old system was disassembled.
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Distribution and creation were already merged with NBC Universal Comcast.
This is just playing catch-up.
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This is just playing catch-up.
I'm sure the Gambino family made much the same argument when the Genovese family got out ahead of them.
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I didn't say it was right or just. I merely said what this is.
Re: This is about CNN (Score:1)
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Ellison's sprog doesn't care one whit for "Zionization". Did you escape from the AmericaFest Racist Retreat currently going on in Washington? What does your minder say about you being out on the loose?
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Paramount wants not just the movie parts of Warner. They want the whole thing, including per TFS, the "cable TV assets." That includes CNN.
Paramount wants to acquire CNN and then change its reporting angle on the current administration.
Paramount should look at the CNN ratings and figure out how many millions per eyeball CNN is costing them.
I doubt even the Military intelligence communities leave that shit streaming in empty lunch rooms these days.
Why a newspaper if you can buy a movie studio? (Score:2)
Ellison winning the pissing contest from Bezos
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Ghoul fight!
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Amazon bought MGM already.
What a good dad. (Score:2)
If Trump Want's it--Be Afraid (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:If Trump Want's it--Be Afraid (Score:5, Insightful)
He already exerts control over CBS the stooge in charge, Bari Weiss https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u... [nbcnews.com]
Impact (Score:1)
Re:Impact (Score:4, Informative)
Hehehehe....you are looking for sense in la Presidenta's "policies"? Can I have some of what you are smoking? la Presidenta wants CNN neutered because their reporters ask him embarrassing questions like, "what were you doing with the underage girls you bought from Jeffery Epstein?" And "How come you claim to blow up boats in the Caribbean from Venezuela to stop the fentanyl trade when that comes from Mexico and your good friend Mr. Xi?" And "How do you know they were drug runners before you killed them?"
Re: Impact (Score:3)
It's not as if once he's done that, his media power is "spent" and can't be used any longer, all the physical assets are worthless etc.
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It's likely abut silencing CNN. If that happens, we are just a step closer to a civil war.
Talking about Civil War using CNNs shit ratings, isn’t how you incite a Civil War. But you might get a couple of rednecks wanting to slap the living shit out of you for suggesting CNN is that important. To even CNN.
If it were, I’d be part of the US Military.
History of the World, Part I (1986) (Score:2)
It's good to be the king.
The movie Barbarians At The Gate (1993) (Score:3)
"Based on a true story, this humor-tinged docudrama follows F. Ross Johnson (James Garner), the CEO and president of the massive food and tobacco corporation RJR Nabisco, as he attempts to buy the company."
A perfect example how things escalate in the corporate world.
dump all billionaires into live volcanoes (Score:4, Insightful)
It should be illegal to allow billionaires to exist. This amount of wealth hoarding is leading to all the shitty things going on in our world; control over the media, stealing elections, sucking taxpayer funds off the government teat. In a world with homelessness and hunger, billionaires are immoral. This is a choice we've made, and it's the wrong choice. Fuck Larry Ellison and his ilk.
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If there aren't enough convenient volcanos, we could set up the Humane Invention on the Mall.
It was tried. (Score:2)
It should be illegal to allow billionaires to exist.
Check out the fascinating history of Huey Long [wikipedia.org]. He was a Governor and a Senator in the 1930s who tried to ban personal fortunes in excess of $100,000,000 with his Share Our Wealth [wikipedia.org] plan. He was assassinated in 1935.
There is an alternative (Score:2)
Not one MBAs like: there's NO REASON for Paramount/Warner Bros to sell themselves at all.