Filings show Ellisons put $17B into Warner Bros. deal

David Ellison and his family invested about $17 billion to complete Paramount Skydance Corp.'s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., according to public filings first reported by Bloomberg. The Ellisons bought an estimated 1.4 billion shares in a stock offering, and investors paid $12 a share, according to the company.bloomberg+1

The investment is the family's largest commitment yet to the media empire that David Ellison, son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has built over the past two years. It comes as shares of the combined company, now called Skydance Corp., have been falling since the deal closed.cnbctv18

How the deal was financed

The Warner Bros. acquisition was valued at $110 billion and included $47 billion in equity investment. Three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds were slated to contribute $24 billion, RedBird Capital Partners put in $4 billion, and South Korean retailer Shinsegae Group provided $1 billion. A filing lists the investors in the new Class B common stock: the Ellison family, RedBird, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, L'IMAD, the Qatar Investment Authority and LionTree.tradingview+1

The new money adds to the roughly $8 billion the Ellisons and RedBird spent last year to take control of Paramount. The family controls the company through its ownership of the voting shares. A spokesperson for Skydance Corp. declined to comment.cnbctv18

Questions about the source of funds

It is not known exactly where the Ellisons' money came from. On September 25, however, Larry Ellison disclosed that over the past year he had pledged 67 million Oracle shares as collateral for personal loans. Based on Oracle's share price, those shares are worth more than $9 billion.cnbctv18

Market reaction

The merger closed on Tuesday, October 6. It ranks among the largest media mergers ever, bringing together two well-known film studios, dozens of TV channels and two major subscription streaming services. Investors have not welcomed it so far. Skydance shares fell almost 7% on Wednesday as investors weighed the combination, and they have dropped about 9% in total since the deal closed.tradingview+1