The father of Paramount’s CEO has upped the ante for the hostile purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, which, if accepted, would keep Warner Bros. intact.
Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison said he will put up $40.4 billion in equity finance Paramount Skydance’s bid, Bloomberg reported.
The company’s $30 a share offer is still on the table.
Ellison said he will not remove his family’s trust or do anything that would lose the value of its assets as the deal is pending.
The family owns about 1.16 billion shares of Oracle common stock.
“In an effort to address Warner Bros.’s amorphous need for ‘flexibility’ in interim operations, Paramount’s revised proposed merger agreement offers further improved flexibility to Warner Bros. on debt refinancing transactions, representations and interim operating covenants,” Paramount said, according to Bloomberg.
Ellison’s son has pushed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery despite the latter accepting a deal with Netflix that would see the streaming service owning Warner’s streaming and studio, but will break off the company’s cable assets, CNN reported. Warner Bros. is the parent company of CNN.
Netflix said it would pay $27.75 a share for Warner Bros. and HBO. The deal is valued at $82.7 billion.
Ellison’s son is Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, who went directly to shareholders with his bid to buy Warner Bros, circumventing the board, which had rejected previous proposals.