Paramount launches $7.5B debt raise for Warner Bros deal

Paramount Skydance said on Thursday it had launched a syndication for a proposed $7.5 billion senior secured term loan, according to a Reuters report. The incremental term B facility, which remains subject to market and other conditions, is part of a broader financing package behind the company's $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. The debt raise marks the latest financing step as Paramount moves toward a closing it has targeted for later this year.

Paramount also intends to raise about $44.4 billion of additional secured debt on top of the term loan and previously announced financings, Reuters reported. The company said it would use the proceeds, together with cash on hand and prior equity financing, to pay for the Warner Bros Discovery purchase and repay some of its existing debt. The combined company is expected to hold about $80 billion of debt once the deal closes.

Legal hurdles cleared days earlier

The loan launch came days after Paramount settled litigation with a California-led group of states and the Writers Guild of America, which cleared the final domestic legal hurdles for the acquisition, according to the report. As part of the settlement, Paramount agreed to increase U.S. film production and establish an editorial-independence board for CBS and CNN. The agreement avoided a forced sale of assets that could have included CNN and the company's film franchises.

Five months of bidding, one winner

Paramount's pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery became public in February, and the definitive agreement ended a five-month contest after Netflix declined to match Paramount's bid. Under the terms the companies announced, Paramount will pay $31.00 per share in cash for all outstanding Warner Bros. shares, implying an equity value of about $81 billion. Netflix had offered about $82.7 billion for the studio and streaming business alone in December, before stepping aside, according to a report on the deal's approval process.

The contest stretched across five months and two competing offers. Netflix had struck a deal to buy the Warner Bros. studio and HBO Max, but the agreement let Warner Bros. consider superior offers. When Paramount raised its bid to cover the whole company, including its cable networks, the Warner Bros. board judged it superior. Netflix then declined to match, according to an audio clip of a Warner Bros. town hall reviewed by Reuters, in which revenue chief Bruce Campbell told employees the streaming giant had the right to match and chose not to.

The offer also carried protections for Warner Bros. investors: a $7 billion regulatory termination fee if the deal collapsed on antitrust grounds, up from an earlier $5.8 billion, and a commitment to cover the $2.8 billion Netflix was owed for walking away, according to the same reporting.

How the money stacks up

The financing behind the bid is dominated by the Ellison family. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is guaranteeing more than $45 billion of the transaction, backed by bank debt commitments exceeding $54 billion, according to a Crypto Briefing report on the approval. Funding also comes from RedBird Capital Partners and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which will hold non-voting shares, according to a summary of the deal's public filings.

Regulators have largely signed off. The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the combination in May after a months-long antitrust review, and Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders voted overwhelmingly in favor of the merger on April 23, 2026, according to the report on the approval. The companies have said the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.

What the combined studio would own

If the deal closes, the merged company would unite Paramount's assets, including CBS, Paramount+ and franchises such as Mission: Impossible and Star Trek, with Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO, CNN and HBO Max, which has nearly 130 million subscribers. Paramount+ adds roughly 79 million subscribers of its own, and the combined library would span some of Hollywood's most valuable franchises, from Harry Potter and Game of Thrones to the DC Universe and SpongeBob SquarePants, according to earlier coverage of the merger.

David Ellison, Paramount's chairman and CEO, said in the announcement that the pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery had been guided by "a clear purpose" and tied to a vision of building a "next-generation media and entertainment company." For viewers, the practical questions are what happens to HBO Max and Paramount+, whether the two streamers merge or get bundled, and what a single owner does with two news divisions in CNN and CBS News. Paramount's settlement commitments, more U.S. film production and an editorial-independence board for CBS and CNN, were added to address concerns about editorial independence at the two news divisions.