Larry Ellison has personally stepped into the ring and guaranteed roughly $40.4 billion to back Paramount Skydance’s amended $30-per-share all-cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, a move that was announced in filings and public statements on December 22, 2025. This “irrevocable” personal guarantee addresses the single largest objection Warner’s board raised about Paramount’s prior financing structure and makes clear that the Ellison family is putting skin in the game.
Paramount didn’t stop there: the company also agreed that Ellison will not revoke or transfer assets from the family trust while the transaction is pending, and Paramount raised its regulatory reverse termination fee to $5.8 billion to match its rival Netflix’s terms. Those changes are designed to neutralize the board’s critiques that Paramount’s original backstop was too soft and to remove any excuse for Warner’s directors to dismiss the offer as illusory.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s board, however, has continued to back the competing Netflix deal and had publicly said Paramount’s original proposal was “inadequate,” preferring the binding structure Netflix offered. The board’s preference for Netflix, despite Paramount’s improved financing and full-company offer, reveals how entrenched corporate insiders and influential advisors can steer outcomes away from shareholder value.
Markets reacted quickly: Paramount Skydance stock ticked up and Warner Bros. Discovery shares rose on the news that the Ellison guarantee removes a major sticking point, and Paramount extended its tender deadline into January 2026 to give shareholders time to consider the strengthened bid. These are the very mechanics of capitalism — adjustments, commitments, and offers that test which side truly has the conviction to close a deal.
From a conservative, free-market perspective, nobody should criticize a billionaire for standing behind his investment when asked; Larry Ellison has simply done what successful investors do every day — back their bets when the chips are on the table. This is about accountability and commitment, not the performative hand-wringing of corporate boards that would rather protect their fiefdoms than maximize shareholder returns.
Still, this fight exposes larger, legitimate concerns about media consolidation and regulatory consistency: a merged Paramount-Skydance and Warner Bros. would reshape Hollywood and challenge rivals like Disney, while a Netflix-WBD tie-up would create unparalleled streaming scale. Conservatives should therefore defend the free market process that brought Ellison’s guarantee forward while also demanding that regulators apply antitrust standards evenly, not as a political cudgel used selectively to favor certain players.
