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Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has agreed to personally backstop the $40bn equity financing of Paramount’s $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, in an attempt to resolve doubts about the financing of the offer.
Paramount said on Monday that Ellison, one of the world’s richest men, had agreed to provide “an irrevocable personal guarantee” for the $40.4bn equity financing of Paramount’s attempt to gatecrash Netflix’s deal for WBD, which is being led by the billionaire’s son David.
WBD last week told shareholders to vote in favour of Netflix’s nearly $83bn bid for its studio and streaming business, arguing that Paramount’s offer for the whole business, including its cable channels, was “inferior”.
It attributed this in part to the lack of personal guarantee by Larry Ellison, which was instead backstopped by the family’s revocable family trust.
This is a developing story