{"id":185748,"date":"2025-12-17T01:18:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2025\/12\/17\/jared-kushners-affinity-partners-backs-out-of-paramount-skydances-hostile-bid-for-warner-bros-discovery\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T01:18:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T01:18:20","slug":"jared-kushners-affinity-partners-backs-out-of-paramount-skydances-hostile-bid-for-warner-bros-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2025\/12\/17\/jared-kushners-affinity-partners-backs-out-of-paramount-skydances-hostile-bid-for-warner-bros-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners backs out of Paramount Skydance’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Affinity Partners, the private equity firm founded by President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Tuesday that it has dropped out of Paramount Skydance’s $108.4 billion hostile bid<\/span> for Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n

The exit, first reported by Bloomberg, came a week after Paramount Skydance made the all-cash bid to Warner Bros. Discovery, just days after Netflix had\u00a0agreed to buy a part of Warner Bros.<\/span>\u00a0in a deal valued at $82.7 billion.<\/p>\n

“With\u2004two\u2004strong competitors\u2004vying to secure\u2004the future\u2004of this\u2004unique American\u2004asset,\u2004Affinity\u2004has\u2004decided no longer to pursue\u2004the opportunity,” an Affinity spokesperson told CBS News in a statement. “The dynamics\u2004of the investment have changed significantly\u2004since we initially became\u2004involved\u2004in October. We\u2004continue to\u2004believe\u2004there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer.”<\/p>\n

Paramount Skydance is the parent company of CBS News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition to Affinity, Paramount Skydance’s bid had other outside financing partners, according to a Paramount Skydance regulatory filing, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Qatar Investment Authority.<\/p>\n

Affinity’s role in the Paramount offer generated some criticism over the firm’s connection to Mr. Trump, and some Democratic lawmakers expressed concerns over foreign money in America’s largest media companies.<\/p>\n

“I’m deeply concerned about the implications here for data privacy, democracy and our media ecosystem,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said last week in a joint letter to Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav.<\/p>\n

The outside investment firms have agreed to give up any governance rights, including seats on the board of directors of a combined firm, according to the regulatory filing. Mr. Trump has also said he plans to be involved in the government approval process of a deal. The president had signaled the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal could face hurdles, saying the combined company’s size “could be a problem.” He also said he would be involved in any decision about whether the federal government should approve the deal.<\/p>\n

Regardless of Paramount Skydance’s bid, Netflix had already reached an agreement to purchase some of Warner Bros. Discovery, including the film studio and streaming service HBO Max.<\/p>\n

Netflix’s deal is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery spins off its cable television networks division, Discovery Global, which is now expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paramount Skydance’s tender offer is set to expire on Jan. 8, 2026, unless it is extended. The offer is backed by the Ellison family \u2014 Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father is Larry Ellison, who leads software maker Oracle Corp. and is the second-richest person in the world with a net worth of $277 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index \u2014 as well as investment firm RedBird Capital. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n Edited by<\/p>\n

Melissa Gaffney<\/span>\n <\/p>\n

\n

Aimee Picchi<\/p>\n

contributed to this report.\n <\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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