(The article was updated to include a response requested by Benzinga from the White House.)<\/p>\n
Anyone who has followed the saga that was Paramount Skydance and Netflix Inc, both trying to win a deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, likely knows President Donald Trump has publicly shown his friendship with father and son Larry and David Ellison, two of the key Paramount figures.<\/p>\n
A lawsuit against the Ellisons and Paramount shows an alleged personal guarantee from the president.<\/p>\n
A lawsuit from R.J. Cipriani filed this week against Paramount Skydance and Paramount adds to the headlines surrounding the high-profile acquisition battle for Warner Bros. Discovery that has also gotten members of Congress worked up.<\/p>\n
Cipriani is a confidant of Paramount President Jeff Shell and previously filed a lawsuit against Shell this month. The update now sees Cipriani taking on both Ellisons, Paramount and other Paramount figures, as reported by Deadline.<\/p>\n
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“Paramount is aware of the frivolous lawsuit and believes the claims are entirely without merit,” a Paramount spokesperson told Deadline. “There is no factual or legal basis for any claim against Paramount, its Directors or its major shareholders, and the Company intends to defend these allegations vigorously.”<\/p>\n
While the lawsuit doesn’t target President Trump, it lays out several claims of the president’s involvement in the merger.<\/p>\n
Cipriani claims Trump gave a “direct personal assurance” to Larry Ellison in Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros., something that was allegedly disclosed by Shell to Cipriani.<\/p>\n
“Larry, it looks like Netflix is gonna get Warner Bros., but if you really, really want it, Larry, I’ll make sure you get it,” Trump allegedly said, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
“The accusations of a professional gambler does not change the fact that the Trump administration, as the president has consistently made clear, remained neutral throughout the Warner Brothers bidding process,\u201d said White House spokesman Kush Desai<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also alleges that Paramount Skydance decided to make “Rush Hour 4” after being pushed by the president, an item allegedly to have been part of the deal to get the Warner Bros. deal approved, according to The Hollywood Reporter.<\/p>\n
Trending:\u00a0Before the IPO: How One Company Quietly Locked Up 500+ Iconic Character Rights<\/a><\/p>\n Whether the comments in the lawsuit are true, Trump has publicly supported the Ellisons, calling them “good friends.”<\/p>\n Trump has gone back and forth during the process of whether he would have a hands-on role in deciding who would get Warner Bros. and allowing the Department of Justice make a ruling.<\/p>\n Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently called out Warner Bros.-owned cable network CNN as “fake news” and said, “the sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.”<\/p>\n The comment suggests the support from the White House to have a Trump ally as the owner of a news network that isn’t currently in favor with the president.<\/p>\n The Trump administration signaled support for Paramount in the war for Warner Bros. from the start.<\/p>\n \u201cWho owns Warner Bros. Discovery is every important to the administration,\u201d a senior Trump administration official\u00a0told\u00a0the New York Post. \u201cThe Warner board needs to think very seriously not just on the price competition but which player in the suitor pool has been successful getting a deal done.\u201d<\/p>\n See Also:\u00a0This Under-$1 Pre-IPO AI Company Is Still Open to Retail Investors \u2014 Learn More<\/a><\/p>\n The senior administration official went on to say the best players in the suitor pool are “the Ellisons.”<\/p>\n \u201cWarner really needs to think really hard about the odds of success getting the deal cleared with players outside of Paramount Skydance.\u201d<\/p>\n The comments suggested that other bidders, like Netflix, could face regulatory hurdles if they chose to pursue an acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n Paramount has been declared the winning bidder by Warner Bros. Discovery and now awaits approval from Trump’s Department of Justice.<\/p>\n Read Next:\u00a0It\u2019s no wonder Jeff Bezos holds over $250 million in art \u2014 this alternative asset has outpaced the S&P 500 since 1995, delivering an average annual return of 11.4%. Here\u2019s how everyday investors are getting started.<\/a><\/p>\n Image via Shutterstock<\/p>\n UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily<\/a>, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets.<\/p>\n Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga:<\/p>\n This article Trump Allegedly Tells Larry Ellison ‘I’ll Make Sure You Get’ Warner Bros, White House Says President ‘Remained Neutral’ In Bidding Process (Updated)<\/a> originally appeared on Benzinga.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(The article was updated to include a response requested by Benzinga from the White House.) Anyone who has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[1497,12,4380,4381,4382,813,3039,4379],"class_list":{"0":"post-3705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-larry-ellison","8":"tag-david-ellison","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-ellisons","11":"tag-frivolous-lawsuit","12":"tag-jeff-shell","13":"tag-larry-ellison","14":"tag-paramount-skydance","15":"tag-warner-bros"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116333913825593875","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}