Kushner and Saudis back hostile takeover of Hollywood giant
Jared
Kushner is funneling $24 billion from Middle Eastern governments to back a
hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery—all while advising President Trump on
foreign policy.
,
, and
Dec 09, 2025
On
Monday morning, Paramount announced a $77.9 billion hostile takeover offer of
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), an American media conglomerate that owns an
iconic movie studio, HBO, and other news and entertainment properties. The
offer is meant to upend Netflix’s deal to purchase WBD for $72 billion,
which WBD accepted last Friday.
Paramount’s
press release announcing the offer says that the $40 billion in equity
financing will be “backstopped by Ellison Family and RedBird Capital.”
The CEO of Paramount is David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder Larry
Ellison, the second-wealthiest person in the world. RedBird
Capital is an investment fund based in New York. (The rest of the cash for the
purchase will be raised as debt from American banks.)
What
is not mentioned in the press release is that while the equity financing is
“backstopped” by American individuals and entities, the majority of the equity
financing — $24 billion — comes from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi
Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. That fact is buried on page 42 of a separate SEC
filing.
$24
billion is a massive investment by foreign governments on Paramount’s behalf.
To put it in perspective, the current value of Paramount is just
$15 billion.
Also
participating in the deal is Affinity Partners, the private equity firm run
by President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Nearly all of Affinity
Partners’ assets come from the same sovereign wealth funds bankrolling the
proposed Paramount takeover of WBD. Kushner collects tens of millions in fees from
Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries annually.
Kushner’s
involvement in the deal highlights the ongoing legal and ethical problems with
his dual role. On the one hand, Kushner is operating as a high-ranking official
representing the Trump administration in the most sensitive foreign policy
matters. On the other hand, he is being paid by and partnering with Middle
Eastern governments as they seek to expand their political, economic, and
cultural interests.
Any
acquisition of WBD requires the approval of multiple federal agencies. On
Sunday, the day before Paramount’s hostile takeover bid was announced, Trump
warned that Netflix’s planned acquisition “could be a problem“ because the combined
company would have too much market share. It was a somewhat surprising comment
from a president who has not made antitrust a central issue of his presidency.
Trump also emphasized that while he would consult “some economists” he would
also personally “be involved” in the decision.
Ted
Sarandos, Netflix’s CEO, reportedly “wooed Trump“ at the White House in advance of
the company’s WBD offer. Netflix agreed to pay WBD $5.7 billion if the deal did
not receive regulatory approval, one of the largest breakup fees ever. This
reflected Netflix’s confidence that the deal would win Trump administration
approval — at least before Kushner became involved.
A
reporter asked Trump on Monday if Kushner’s involvement with Paramount’s
deal could influence his views. “I don’t
know,” Trump responded. “I’ve never spoken with him about it.”
Paramount is willing to conform to Trump’s ideological
agenda
Trump
may be more amenable to Paramount’s bid for WBD, because Paramount has a
history of bowing to Trump’s political demands, especially since David Ellison
became CEO in August.
In
September, CBS News announced that it hired a Trump loyalist,
Kenneth R. Weinstein, to “receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other
concerns involving CBS” as the company’s new ombudsman. Paramount had promised
to create the job to secure approval for its merger with Skydance. Weinstein
had no experience with producing or overseeing news coverage and previously
was the president of the Hudson Institute, a
right-wing think tank. Weinstein has an extensive record of praising Trump, and in
July 2024, Weinstein donated $20,000 to a committee supporting
Trump’s campaign.
In
October, Paramount announced that it was hiring anti-woke
crusader Bari Weiss as the new editor-in-chief of CBS News and purchasing
Weiss’ The Free Press for a reported $150 million. Weiss, a former
New York Times opinion editor and writer, had no experience
in broadcast news. In 2021, Weiss founded The Free Press, a right-leaning
publication that often criticizes what it deems the “woke” left and efforts to
promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). A Popular Information review of The Free Press’ articles found
that it repeatedly distorted the truth in order to conform to a right-wing
ideological agenda.
Larry
Ellison is also a close ally of Trump. In 2020, he held a “six-figure-per-person campaign fundraiser” for
the president at his California estate, where guests could pay $100,000 to golf
and take a photo with Trump or $250,000 to “also participate in a round-table discussion.”
He has also dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, sat in on a transition meeting at
Mar-a-Lago, and has reportedly met with Trump frequently this
year.
The foreign ownership problem
Having
foreign governments own such a large stake in a company like WBD — which has
sensitive financial information about millions of Americans — creates
significant regulatory uncertainty. Such transactions frequently require an
additional layer of approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
United States (CFIUS).
In the
SEC filing regarding the offer, Paramount claims that it has structured the
deal to be outside of CFIUS’s jurisdiction:
Our other outside financing
partners (the Public Investment Fund (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), L’imad
Holding Company PJSC (Abu Dhabi), Qatar Investment Authority (Qatar) and
Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner)) have agreed to forgo any governance
rights – including board representation – associated with their
non-voting equity investments. Accordingly, the Transaction will not be within
CFIUS’s jurisdiction.
It is
telling that Affinity Partners, a U.S. company owned by an American, is lumped
into this group. Paramount is tacitly acknowledging that Kushner is using
Affinity Partners as a vehicle for foreign influence.
But
Paramount’s claim that CFIUS no longer has jurisdiction over the deal is false.
A company cannot extinguish concerns about foreign ownership simply by
nominally giving up governance rights. There are many other ways that entities
providing $24 billion in equity investment can influence the operations of a
company.
That’s
why CFIUS has jurisdiction to investigate the deal between Paramount and WBD to
determine what influence the sovereign wealth funds have and whether that
influence raises national security concerns.
The creative and economic concerns about Netflix’s takeover
bid
Netflix’s
bid to buy WBD is also controversial.
Lawmakers
on both sides of the aisle have raised anti-trust concerns about the deal.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who leads a Senate subcommittee on antitrust,
said on X that the deal raised “a lot of
antitrust red flags” and that he would hold “an intense antitrust hearing.” Meanwhile,
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that the deal “looks like an anti-monopoly nightmare.” If
Netflix were to buy WBD, it would own two of the top three largest streaming services, Netflix and HBO
Max. This market power could allow Netflix to raise prices for its subscription
services, which are already increasing rapidly.
The Writers Guild of America said the Netflix
deal would “eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all
entertainment workers, raise prices for consumers, and reduce the volume and
diversity of content for all viewers.”
Another
issue is the impact that the Netflix purchase could have on movie theaters.
Netflix typically does not show its movies in theaters. Netflix’s CEO has said
that declines in box office sales show that going to the movie theater is “an outmoded idea” and consumers would prefer
to watch movies at home. With WBD films making up roughly a quarter of box office sales in North
America, a theater-owner trade group said “the negative impact of this
acquisition will impact theaters from the biggest circuits to one-screen
independents.” Netflix has said that it would continue showing WBD movies in
theaters, although this was met with skepticism from many in the industry.
