Ellisons invest US$17bil in Warner Bros deal

NEW YORK: David Ellison and his family invested approximately US$17bil to complete Paramount Skydance Corp’s acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery Inc, according to public filings.

Ellison, the son of Oracle Corp co-founder Larry Ellison, and his family acquired an estimated 1.4 billion shares in a stock offering, the filings showed. Investors paid US$12 a share, according to the company.

A spokesperson for the newly merged business, now called Skydance Corp, declined to comment.

The US$110bil Warner Bros acquisition involved an equity investment of US$47bil. Three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds were slated to contribute US$24bil, RedBird Capital Partners invested US$4bil and Shinsegae Group, a South Korean retailer, provided US$1bil.

The latest investment is on top of the roughly US$8bil that the Ellisons and RedBird put in to buy control of Paramount last year. The Ellisons control the company through their ownership of the voting shares.

While the exact source of the Ellisons’ funds is not known, Larry Ellison revealed on Sept 25 that he pledged 67 million Oracle shares over the past year to use as collateral for personal loans. Those shares are worth more than US$9bil based on Oracle’s share price.

Skydance shares have fallen about 9% since the merger closed on Tuesday. — Bloomberg