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Paramount Skydance said Thursday it is launching a syndication to raise $7.5 billion through a proposed senior secured incremental tranche of term “B” loans. The David Ellison-led company it will use the funds toward
its $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger and to pay down certain other debt.
In total, Paramount said it now intends to raise approximately $44.4 billion of additional secured debt, in addition to previously announced financings (subject to market and other conditions).
“Paramount intends to utilize the net proceeds of these borrowings, together with cash on hand and the net proceeds of the previously announced equity financing, to finance the purchase price for its previously announced acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. and the repayment of certain existing debt,” Paramount said.
At the end of 2026, on a pro-forma basis, the merged Paramount-Warner Bros. would have net debt of $77.2 billion, Morgan Stanley analysts estimated in a report Tuesday. With the additional loans Paramount is seeking to secure, that estimate will likely be revised upward.
Paramount’s deal to merge with Warner Bros. Discovery is close to the finish line, after the company reached a settlement with 12 state attorneys general to settle their antitrust lawsuit over the pact. The judge in the case has scheduled a hearing Thursday to go over points of the proposed consent decree; pending the judge’s approval, the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger is expected to close in about two weeks.
In a last-ditch effort to derail the Paramount-WBD merger, the groups behind the Block the Merger coalition filed an emergency request asking U.S. District Court Judge Martínez-Olguín “to grant interested parties the opportunity to formally oppose the weak and unenforceable consent decree that state attorneys general entered into with Paramount on Monday.”
Oracle founder and billionaire Larry Ellison, who is David’s father, has personally guaranteed $46.7 billion in equity financing for the WBD takeover. In addition, Paramount has lined up $24 billion in commitments from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to Paramount, the three Middle Eastern funds would own 38.5% of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros.
