Larry Ellison's big dumb gift to his large adult son

"The two we are concerned with are a bid from Netflix and another from two nepo babies: David Ellison and Jared Kushner. David Ellison is the head of Paramount, but most famous for being Larry's son. Jared Kushner is most famous for being Donald Trump's son-in-law, though he also got his start in business by taking over his felon father's firm when Charles was in prison; his firm is involved in the financing."

"Netflix won the bidding. Warner Bros. made an agreement to sell most of its business - the studio part - to the streaming giant for $83 billion, including debt. (That figure is a bit more than five times Paramount's market cap.) Warner Bros. felt that spinning itself into two companies, the Netflix acquisition and the cable networks, gave shareholders a value of $31 to $31 a share, rather than the $30 a share Paramount was offering, according to The Wall Street Journal."

"Nonetheless, Paramount announced a hostile bid to take over Warner Bros. for $30 per share, which puts the total at $108.4 billion, including debt. Apparently, Paramount has been after Warner Bros. for the last two years, even before Ellison père et fils entered the picture. But now, it's backstopped the deal with the Ellison family trust, which includes a war chest of about 1.16 billion Oracle shares. The current offer from Paramount is not the "best and final" - at least, according to The New York Times - so this dumb fight is likely to drag on for a while."

Warner Bros. opened itself to sale in October and attracted multiple bids. Netflix agreed to buy most of the studio business for $83 billion including debt, a figure far larger than Paramount's market capitalization. Warner Bros. suggested splitting into a Netflix-acquired studio unit and remaining cable networks, valuing shares at roughly $31 versus Paramount's $30 offer. Paramount then launched a hostile $30-per-share bid for the entire company, backed by the Ellison family trust and financing tied to Jared Kushner, bringing the total to about $108.4 billion including debt. The competing offers create a prolonged and economically puzzling takeover battle.

Read at The Verge