Larry Ellison Offers Personal Guarantee to Paramount's Warner Bid

The co-founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, announced that he would issue personal guarantees on behalf of Paramount Skydance in an effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The guarantee should persuade the Warner Bros board to overcome its doubts about Paramount's financing in a takeover counteroffer, competing with the one from Netflix.

Warner said it will review and consider Paramount's revised terms, but added that the board would not modify its recommendation for shareholders to accept the Netflix deal. Paramount stated that the amended terms do not alter the previously announced $30-per-share all-cash offer. As part of the revised terms, Ellison also agreed not to revoke the family trust or transfer its assets during the pendency of the transaction.

Paramount raised its regulatory reverse termination fee to $5.8 billion from $5 billion to match the competing transaction and extended the expiration date of its offer to January 21. Warner investors have said they would be open to revised offers from Paramount if it presents a superior bid and addresses issues with deal terms. Under the preferred agreement, Warner would owe Netflix $2.8 billion as a breakup fee if it walks away from that deal.