Larry Ellison provides personal guarantee for Paramount takeover of Warner Bros

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/22/larry-ellison-40-billion-paramount-warner-bros

by sgerenser • 7 months ago

40 20 7 months ago

theguardian.com

philipwhiuk• 7 months ago

Remember the lawnmower and the acronym.

toomanyrichies• 7 months ago

For those who don't get the references:

"Lawnmower" refers to this. [1] And I'm guessing "acronym" refers to the joke that "Oracle" is an acronym for "One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison".

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15886728

pityJuke• 7 months ago

Some context from Matt Levine [0] as to what was different prior to this change.

(TL;DR, but please correct me if I'm wrong: it was previously backstopped by Ellison's revocable trust. Ellison could theoretically clear out the revocable trust at any time, and leave WBD high and dry. Now that it is backstopped by Ellison himself, there is no such worry.)

[0] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2025-12-17/war...

lesuorac• 7 months ago

In an effort to address these concerns, Paramount said on Monday morning that Larry Ellison, the co-founder of tech giant Oracle, had agreed to personally backstop $40.4bn in equity financing for the proposed deal.

The deal is for $108.4bn though.

IIUC, Ellison's trust is on the hook for 40.7bn so where's the missing 0.3bn? Levine didn't really talk much about how the remainder is secured so there could be issues there as well.

andsoitis• 7 months ago

Daddy Ellison helps nepo baby

platevoltage• 7 months ago

I can't wait for both the Ferengi and the Cardassians to take over The Federation in the next Star Trek series.

ChrisArchitect• 7 months ago

Related Paramount release:

Paramount amends its $30 per share all-cash offer for warner bros. Discovery

https://ir.paramount.com/news-releases/news-release-details/...

mullingitover• 7 months ago

Netflix diabolically threw in a $5.8 billion reverse termination fee for their offer, which I believe is rich enough that even if their deal doesn't go through, Warner Bros has enough money to give Ellison the bird and still keep their investors happy.

bgwalter• 7 months ago

He already uses $82 billion in stock as collateral for his borrowing:

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/18/larry-ellison-365-billion-fo...

This is another $40 billion guarantee. Imagine he gets a margin call if ORCL drops another 30%.

bigbuppo• 7 months ago

Good thing that AI is definitely not a bubble, and if it was, that Oracle was smart enough to not be involved in any of that mess.

robocat• 7 months ago

The negative publicity obviously motivated him. Who does he care about impressing these days?

Canada2• 7 months ago

He's buying as much media as possible to propagandize Americans on behalf of Israel. It's why he has TikTok and why he's installed Bari Weiss at CBS.

lotsoweiners• 7 months ago

Just curious. How does that benefit someone like Ellison?

bfkwlfkjf3• 7 months ago

I find it encouraging that people are starting more and more to openly criticise Israel without fear of being called aNtIsEmItIc. They've used it so much it lost its effectiveness.

djohnston2• 7 months ago

All the media ownership in the world won't put the genie back in the bottle larry - zionism is dying and Americans are sick of footing the bill to their own detriment.

greatgib• 7 months ago

Asshole involved, not surprised...

Larry Ellison provides personal guarantee for Paramount takeover of Warner Bros

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