Even Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds have joined the "money game" to seize Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), the U.S. media industry giant.
This has set up a showdown between the Paramount camp, which combines oil money from Saudi Arabia and Qatar with associates of U.S. President Trump, and the Netflix camp, backed by Wall Street capital and Silicon Valley technology. Political power and traditional commercial capital are clashing over the biggest asset on the market in Hollywood history.
On the 10th (local time), David Ellison, CEO of Skydance, which leads Paramount, said he proposed an all-cash acquisition to WBD shareholders at $30 per share, for a total of $108 billion (about 158 trillion won). That is about $25 billion more than Netflix's $83 billion (about 122 trillion won) stock-and-cash mixed bid.
The key point is the source of funds. The Paramount camp includes the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi's Rimad Holdings, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), three major Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. They will contribute about $24 billion (about 35 trillion won), serving as the acquisition's funding lifeline. It is a rare case of Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds forming an alliance for a single transaction.
Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are actively investing in soft-power industries like entertainment, tourism, and sports to reduce dependence on oil. Earlier, Saudi Arabia's PIF sought to acquire Electronic Arts (EA), the world's largest video game company, and secured equity in MBC, the Middle East's largest media group. Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) attracted the Warner Bros. theme park in 2018 and expanded its touchpoints with Hollywood by providing filming locations for hit movies such as "Furious 7," "Star Wars: Episode VII," and "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning." This investment goes beyond simple revenue pursuit and is a strategic move to make the Middle East a global content hub in the post-oil era.
A powerful pro-Trump network has also joined. Affinity Partners, the private equity firm run by Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, appeared as an investor. In addition, Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO Ellison and the founder of Oracle, is a key supporter of President Trump. Larry Ellison reportedly called Trump directly right after the Netflix acquisition announcement and argued that "Netflix's monopoly harms market competition."
Trump also sees this transaction as a suitable opportunity to deal with CNN, which he has long viewed as a thorn in his side. CNN is a subsidiary of WBD, and Netflix previously released a plan to acquire WBD without CNN, citing political risk. Trump publicly said of this deal, "I will get involved," adding, "We can't leave the company to the people who ruined CNN." Reuters reported that CEO Ellison visited Washington and promised Trump administration government officials, "If we succeed in the acquisition, we will overhaul CNN." Paramount is said to be considering separating and selling CNN or replacing its management if it succeeds in the acquisition.
Netflix, by contrast, tapped traditional commercial capital stripped of political color, such as big Wall Street banks and the bond market. It is a so-called "Debtflix" strategy. Netflix raised about $59 billion (about 86 trillion won) through short-term financing from Wells Fargo and BNP Paribas, among others, to fund the acquisition. Netflix is said to have persuaded the WBD board by highlighting its status as the No. 1 online video service (OTT) operator worldwide and its cash-generating ability.
Netflix has capital and market logic, while Paramount is relying on Trump connections and cash mobilization power. But for Paramount, the key is clearing review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Major Hollywood producers like Warner Bros. are among the core forces shaping U.S. cultural power.
Hollywood labor circles and creators are concerned about a scenario in which production studios and the news channel CNN fall into foreign capital—especially the hands of Middle Eastern monarchies whose conservative, universal character differs from that of the United States. Paramount, mindful of this, said it would not grant voting rights or board seats to the Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds. By limiting them to financial investors (FIs) who provide funding without management involvement, Paramount aims to avoid the blade of reviews concerning security and cultural issues.
Netflix faces significant antitrust risks. Adding HBO and the Warner Bros. studio to Netflix, the world's No. 1 OTT, would create excessive market dominance. As of 2025, Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers worldwide. Its share of the streaming market exceeds 30%. Experts predicted that if you add HBO Max, the OTT held by Warner Bros., content and subscriber-base synergies would lift its market share above 40%.
In that case, clearing regulatory reviews in regions sensitive to monopolies, such as Europe, will be difficult. Netflix already commands 51% of revenue in the European OTT market. With the majority already surpassed, adding more subscribers would make it hard for this transaction to avoid criticism as an "acquisition to eliminate a competitor." Taking this into account, Paramount attacked in a letter to Warner Bros., saying, "A merger with Netflix could take more than two years due to lengthy regulatory reviews," and argued that its own proposal is safer from a regulatory standpoint.
For consumers, subscription price hikes are expected regardless of who prevails. Both Netflix and Paramount are likely to raise prices after a merger by leaning on their content competitiveness. As production units that the two studios originally operated separately are integrated after an acquisition, the total number of works produced is also expected to decrease.