Jared Kushner is no longer part of the aggressive takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
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The private equity firm run by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is no longer backing Paramount’s aggressive takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, the company confirmed on Tuesday.
Days after Warner agreed to be bought by Netflix in early December, Paramount launched a rival bid seeking to bypass Warner’s management and appeal to its shareholders for more cash. Paramount is offering $30 US per Warner share to $27.75 US for Netflix.
Warner, one of Hollywood’s “big five” studios, owns Warner Bros. Pictures, HBO, the DC Comics universe and the Harry Potter franchise. Experts say the purchase could cost the company a winner and reshape the streaming wars, either by pulling Netflix ahead of top rivals or by consolidating a new power player in Paramount.
Paramount, which is much smaller than Netflix, said its decision to oust Warner’s top executives came after they “were never productively engaged” with several of the company’s previous specials.
Paramount made the details of its new offer public and gave Warner shareholders the option to tender their shares – sell them outright at a set price – to support their bid. The company is offering to buy Warner’s entire portfolio, including cable networks like CNN and Netflix that are not included in its bid.
Paramount Skydance made an aggressive bid to take over Warner Bros. Discovery for $108 billion US just days after Netflix announced it had struck a $72-billion US deal with the legacy studio. It is a move that even affects US President Donald Trump.
In its filing with shareholders, Paramount said its offer may be more likely to pass regulatory scrutiny from the Trump administration.
The president had said that Warner’s deal with Netflix “could be problematic” because of the size of the combined market share.
Kushner’s decision to withdraw financial support from his company removes a major potential advantage of defeating Trump. The value of Kushner’s Affinity Partners’ offer was not disclosed in Paramount’s most recent SEC filing.
“With two powerful competitors fighting to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided not to pursue this opportunity,” the company said in a statement. “The dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we first got involved in October. We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offering.”
Paramount’s bid is being backed by sovereign wealth funds run by three governments in the Persian Gulf, widely reported to be Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Paramount, which owns CBS, MTV and the Paramount+ streaming service, was recently headed by David Ellison, the son of Trump’s biggest donor, Larry Ellison. But Trump recently criticized Ellison for his treatment of CBS News’ 60 Minutes.
“If they are friends, I would hate to see my enemies!” Trump said Tuesday on Truth Social.
Warner is reviewing Paramount’s offer and is expected to tell shareholders soon whether it is a better deal than selling to Netflix.
