Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance

Warner Bros Discovery, IncAdd to myFTGet instant alerts for this topicManage your delivery channels hereRemove from myFTParamount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare allianceBacking from Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar represents latest push into prized international media assetsJared Kushner, David Ellison and Mohammed bin Salman © FT montage/Reuters/AFP/Getty ImagesParamount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on x (opens in a new window)Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on facebook (opens in a new window)Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on linkedin (opens in a new window)Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on x (opens in a new window)Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on facebook (opens in a new window)Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on linkedin (opens in a new window)Paramount’s Warner Bros bid draws Gulf investors into rare alliance on whatsapp (opens in a new window) Save Chloe Cornish in Dubai, James Fontanella-Khan in New York, Daniel Thomas and Andrew England in LondonPublishedDecember 10 2025Jump to comments sectionPrint this pageUnlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.If David Ellison was to launch one of the most audacious takeover bids in Hollywood history, he needed cash — and quickly. To get it, he turned to the oil-rich Gulf. Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar are providing $24bn of financial muscle for the Paramount chief’s $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, underlining the Gulf’s position as a financier of choice for mammoth US deals and putting a spotlight on the region’s eagerness to plough money into the entertainment industry. The arrangement is an unusual case of collaboration between the jockeying Gulf powers, who are set to contribute almost 60 per cent of the $41bn equity in Paramount’s bid.For the Gulf investors, the deal offers a rare opportunity to acquire a sizeable stake in a top US media brand that might otherwise have been out of their reach.Their interest was not only about soft power and influence, according to people with decades-long relationships with Gulf rulers. Investing in Hollywood’s intellectual property is in line with efforts to diversify the economies of Gulf states that have been pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into sport, entertainment and tourism. Mazen Hayek, a Dubai-based media consultant, said WBD’s IP was an important attraction. But he added that Gulf sovereign funds were also interested for “prestige — for $7bn-$8bn each you become a shareholder in a major global media firm, so from a soft power perspective that’s very interesting”. Investing in Hollywood’s intellectual property is in line with efforts to diversify the economies of Gulf states © Patrick T Fallon/BloombergWestern governments — including the US and the UK — have been trying to lure Gulf petrodollars to support their own economies.

President Donald Trump has openly courted the Gulf, visiting the region on the first foreign trip of his second term, where he secured commitments to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the US. The president’s family company has done multiple deals in the region, and Gulf sovereign wealth funds have invested in Affinity Partners, the fund set up by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, which is also backing Paramount’s bid.The Gulf’s petrodollars were vital for Ellison to bankroll his effort to gatecrash Netflix’s rival offer for WBD.But assembling that backing was not straightforward. The same trio backing Paramount supplied most of the $4bn-plus raised by Kushner’s Affinity Partners, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE were anchor investors in SoftBank’s Vision Fund, with Saudi’s Public Investment Fund alone committing $45bn.Still, it is highly unusual for the three Gulf states, usually cast as regional competitors who prefer to court Wall Street on their own terms, to be on a single transaction.“The fact that they are coming together on this deal shows how they are putting aside old rivalries,” said an investor with decades of experience in the region. Gerry Cardinale, founder of private equity group RedBird and Ellison’s co-investor in the WBD deal, travelled repeatedly to the Gulf in recent months and played a central role in securing the funding, particularly in Qatar and the UAE, according to people familiar with the matter.Ellison also met the kingdom’s PIF executives and other officials from the region in recent weeks.With the funding secured, another challenge looms. There has been sensitivity about investments in media assets by funds controlled by the Gulf’s autocratic monarchies.A bid for Britain’s Telegraph media group backed by an Emirati fund triggered the UK to change its media ownership laws last year. The lingering stigma caused by the brutal 2018 murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents could also draw scrutiny over Riyadh’s suitability as a backer of a company that owns one of the US’s top news networks, CNN.Some in the creative industries shunned the country after Khashoggi’s killing. One media executive said it was still “tough to see how Saudi Arabia can own a media organisation years after the killing of Khashoggi”. In recent years, however, international sports and entertainment stars from footballer Cristiano Ronaldo to singer Jennifer Lopez have flocked to the kingdom to take part in events.Paramount has sought to alleviate concerns about the influence its Gulf backers would have over WBD’s assets. It has promised that neither the Middle East investors nor Kushner’s Affinity Partners would have voting rights or board seats.Another person with close ties to the Gulf’s sovereign wealth funds said the influence gained through a large stake in one of Hollywood’s top studios would be a motivating factor for the investors. “They always assume that there is influence involved even if there are no board seats,” he said. “As a shareholder they get a voice.” Media and entertainment investments are part of a drive by Gulf leaders to diversify their oil-addicted economies and develop new industries.In September, Saudi Arabia’s PIF backed the largest leveraged buyout of all time, as the central player in the $55bn deal for Electronic Arts.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a keen gamer, was connected to the deal through Kushner.Donald Trump and Mohammed bin Salman at the White House in November © Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesBacking Paramount’s bid was also part of a broader effort by some Gulf power brokers to build influence with tycoons such as Ellison and his father Larry, the billionaire founder of cloud-computing group Oracle, according to people close to the deal. Oracle, which committed in May to invest $14bn in Saudi Arabia, is valued as a potential ally in developing the country’s tech sector and for its ties to the Trump administration. As in other sectors, Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s financial clout has lured some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence to the Gulf, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Elon Musk.Gulf leaders want to use media to project themselves on the global stage, offering their cities and deserts as settings for movies and television series, from the Abu Dhabi racetrack finale of Brad Pitt’s F1 to John Krasinski’s Jack Ryan, which filmed scenes in Dubai this year. But it was bringing Hollywood to the region that is the goal, according to media executives. Saudi Arabia is encouraging filmmaking with finance packages via a state-backed film fund and huge tax incentives for production. One US investor with ties to the region said assets such as WBD were crucial to the diversification strategy of leaders such as Prince Mohammed, known colloquially as MBS. “Look at what MBS is doing: he’s put a trillion dollars into Saudi — Neom, Diriyah, all these massive developments. But all that only works if you also have the intellectual property,” the investor said. “That means having Warner Bros and Paramount theme parks, production facilities and Hollywood vested in producing original content in Riyadh.” Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s wealthy capital, is developing a creative industries hub to make movies, games and other media content as part of an effort to drive tourists towards its cavernous, air-conditioned entertainment venues. Disney this year announced its first theme park in the region would be built on Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, where there is already a Warner Bros World with plans for a Harry Potter land. A man wearing a Taz costume poses for a picture with a woman at Warner Bros World, the first-ever Warner branded indoor theme park, in Abu Dhabi © Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty ImagesThe emirate has backed Paramount’s bid through a virtually unknown new government-owned vehicle L’imad Holding. L’imad’s only known previous deal was announced last month — the acquisition of nearly 85 per cent of local real estate-to-hospitality conglomerate Modon, from two entities chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, one of the most powerful Abu Dhabi royals. The UAE’s national security adviser has positioned himself as one of the Gulf’s most active dealmakers. He is also Abu Dhabi’s key interlocutor with Washington, spearheading the emirate’s efforts to obtain powerful Nvidia AI semiconductors and recently meeting Kushner and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East.Sheikh Tahnoon’s brother, Sheikh Mansour, has also invested in international media, largely through a joint venture between his IMI investment vehicle and RedBird IMI. The venture’s assets include All3Media, the London-based TV and production company behind Fleabag and Squid Game: The Challenge.Qatar, whose assets include homegrown network Al Jazeera, is a close ally to the US and host of the biggest American military base in the region. Its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, previously invested $150mn in US studio group North Road, and the tiny gas-rich state raised its profile by hosting the football World Cup.But for deep-pocketed Gulf investors, western entertainment assets are not necessarily just about trophies. Gulf investors “do not want to be treated as dumb money”, said a person who has invested alongside the region’s sovereign funds. “They want respect, and they also want investments abroad to ultimately flow back home . . . They want job creation, production, skills transfer.”Additional reporting by Antoine Gara in New YorkReuse this content (opens in new window) CommentsJump to comments sectionPromoted Content Follow the topics in this article Middle Eastern finance Add to myFT Middle Eastern companies Add to myFT Mergers & Acquisitions Add to myFT Media Add to myFT Sovereign wealth funds Add to myFT Comments