UPDATE 4: X is part of the plan, per insiders, who now lay out Skydance’s full tech equation.
UPDATE 3: No word on Musk, but the Gulf funds are in: the Saudi, Qatar and Abu Dhabi money is now in place at Skydance.
UPDATE 2: That $40 billion bought more than a studio: insiders say Larry’s Oracle is where David Ellison’s analytics come from.
UPDATE: The night after this report, David Ellison and Elon Musk were in the same room at Trump’s state dinner for Xi Jinping. Insider: “Big things coming!”
Elon Musk could end up owning a piece of Paramount Warner Bros.
Two days after Paramount settled with California, clearing the $111 billion merger to close by early October, Semafor reports that Paramount executives have discussed asking Musk to become part of a syndicate of equity investors in the company.
In plain English: a group of wealthy backers, each buying a piece of Paramount, with Musk’s name among those CEO David Ellison has considered asking.
Larry Ellison Is On The Hook For $40 Billion
Per Semafor, Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed more than $40 billion of the money behind the Warner Bros. purchase. The Oracle founder is on the hook for it himself.
Bringing in more investors would spread that load around and give Paramount fresh cash as it digests Warner Bros.
And Musk and Larry Ellison go way back. Larry put $1 billion into Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, invested in Tesla in 2018, and sat on Tesla’s board for years.
Semafor’s Rohan Goswami writes that a Musk investment would be a major show of confidence in the combined company, and that Musk brings a devoted retail investor following with him.
The Money Behind The Plan Keeps Growing
A big-money syndicate is nothing new for this deal. Our first report last November said the Saudis are among the Paramount Warner Bros. investors, backing Zack Snyder’s Justice League sequels.
Paramount also committed to 30 movies a year in the California settlement, and our insiders say the studio is taking pitches for big swings and big revivals.
All of that takes money. A Musk check would add plenty.
The CNN Question
There is a wrinkle. Paramount Warner Bros. will own CNN and CBS, and Semafor notes that even partial Musk ownership would likely raise alarm bells in Washington, given his control of X and his political influence. The outlet adds it’s unlikely Musk would have formal input over the company’s operations.
The size of a potential Musk investment couldn’t be determined. Paramount declined to comment to the outlet, and Musk didn’t respond.
After the settlement win, our sources said the next 6 to 12 months “are gonna be wild.”
Two days in, Elon Musk’s name is on the table.
