① Warner Bros. rejected Paramount's high-priced acquisition offer on Wednesday due to doubts about the Ellison family's funding sources; ② Trump complained about CBS's changed attitude towards him since its acquisition by the Ellison family and hinted that his relationship with Paramount was not close; ③ Trump's son-in-law's company also withdrew from Paramount's bidding group on Tuesday, deepening market suspicions about the relationship between Trump and the Ellison family, which also makes the future of Warner Bros. uncertain.
Warner Bros. Discovery The company rejected Paramount's high-priced acquisition offer on Wednesday, citing uncertainty about the funding sources of the Ellison family, which spearheaded the acquisition. This appears to have surprised analysts who were confident that Paramount would easily acquire Warner Bros. with the support of the Trump administration.
Even more surprisingly, at the height of the bidding war, Trump publicly complained about Paramount's news arm, CBS, saying that the media outlet had treated him far worse since it was acquired by the Ellison family.
Earlier this year, Skydance, led by David Ellison, merged with Paramount Pictures. Subsequently, the market interpreted CBS's reporting as more favorable to Trump because David Ellison's father, Oracle... Company founder Larry Ellison is considered one of Trump's closest supporters.
Trump said on social media Wednesday that those who think he has a close relationship with CBS's new owner should understand that the "60 Minutes" team has treated him worse since the acquisition. He added that if these people were his friends, he couldn't imagine what his enemies would be like.
They are not friends
Larry Ellison is the co-founder and chairman of Oracle . He has hosted fundraising events for Trump and was involved in the unveiling of the large data center by Trump. The Stargate project is considered one of Trump's allies.
Trump's attitude towards CBS was quite friendly a month ago. At that time, Trump and CBS reached a settlement regarding past disputes, and Trump even gave his first interview to "60 Minutes," saying that CBS's new leader, Weiss, seemed very great. Weiss was also one of the key executives appointed by David Ellison after the acquisition of Paramount.
However, after Paramount announced its hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros., Trump began to suggest that his relationship with Paramount was not as close as rumored. On Tuesday, Affinity, the private equity firm of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, also announced its withdrawal from the bidding group for Paramount, deepening market suspicions about the relationship between Trump and the Ellison family.
This also deprived Paramount of its biggest advantage in its hostile takeover of Warner Bros.: the friendly attitude from the U.S. government.
However, despite Trump publicly distancing himself from Paramount, he remained supportive of Netflix, another bidder for Warner Bros. Netflix's attitude was also rather lukewarm. Trump claimed that neither Paramount nor Netflix were his friends.
Gaining Trump's support is a crucial step towards a successful sale of Warner Bros. The White House previously stated that while Trump respects the acquisition strategies of both companies, he expects to be personally involved in the final acquisition process and emphasized that the US government is focused on market diversification.
(Article source: CLS)
