Saudi Arabia Is Pumping $10 Billion Into America’s Biggest Media Merger — And Nobody Noticed
In February, Paramount stunned the media world with an $81 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery — home to HBO, CNN, and Harry Potter. The deal is now pending regulatory review in Europe.
Warner had already chosen Netflix. But Paramount launched a hostile bid, then sweetened its offer — defeating Netflix after months of fierce corporate jockeying to claim one of Hollywood’s biggest prizes.
But the early coalition didn’t hold. Tencent and Affinity Partners — the private-equity firm of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — initially backed Paramount’s bid, but both quietly withdrew from the deal entirely.
Filling the void, Paramount locked in nearly $24 billion in equity commitments from 3 Gulf sovereign-wealth funds — Saudi Arabia’s PIF ($10 billion alone), Qatar Investment Authority, and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co.
The Gulf investors won’t hold voting rights in the new Paramount-Warner entity. Each fund owns far below 25%, keeping the deal clear of mandatory CFIUS and FCC regulatory reviews — by design.
On the debt side, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Apollo Global Management committed $54 billion. Paramount executives have quietly told employees: prepare for the deal to close as soon as July.
