{"id":388892,"date":"2025-11-19T02:07:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T02:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/388892\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T02:07:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T02:07:22","slug":"will-middle-east-investors-step-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/388892\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Middle East Investors Step Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAs Paramount<\/a>, Comcast and Netflix prepare bids for Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> ahead of a Thursday deadline<\/a>, speculation is growing about the role of Middle East<\/a> wealth in the game-changing transaction.<\/p>\n

\n\tSaudi Crown Prince\u00a0Mohammed bin Salman<\/a> pledged investments of $1 trillion in the U.S. economy at a White House visit Tuesday ahead of a formal dinner that will see Paramount CEO David Ellison in attendance. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts recently traveled to Saudi Arabia<\/a>. The increasingly high-profile Doha Film Festival opens Thursday in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeeting with President Donald Trump in Washington, MBS said the opportunity for investment in the U.S. is \u201cincreasing more and more.\u201d The visit was his first since the murder of Saudi dissident and\u00a0Washington Post\u00a0columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, an event that drew harsh condemnation from a wide swath of government officials, and a step-back from many companies in entertainment and beyond. Now, the tide seems to be turning back toward the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

\n\tElon Musk and other notables will join Ellison at a black-tie dinner held in the Saudi royal\u2019s honor, a person familiar with the guest list tells Deadline. Earlier Tuesday, Trump was slated to meet with Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer star who recently re-upped his $200 million-a-year contract with Saudi club Al-Nassr.<\/p>\n

\n\tA\u00a0Variety\u00a0report, citing anonymous sources, said a coalition involving Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, had formed in support of a forthcoming $71 billion bid by Paramount for WBD, which would be a notch higher than prior bids in the $60 billion-plus range.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Paramount spokesperson called the report \u201ccategorically inaccurate\u201d and said, \u201cThis is a confidential process, which we respect, and, as such, we will not be commenting until the process is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tChatter about potential backers of a WBD bid highlight the increasing presence of Mideast money in the entertainment business. In one of the most notable deals, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Private Investment Fund, which has vast holdings across media, technology and sports, became\u00a0a major stakeholder in the $55 billion transaction<\/a>\u00a0that will take the video game giant Electronic Arts private. Jared Kushner, Trump\u2019s son-in-law whose business activities have ramped up in the Middle East of late, is also a participant in the EA deal.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison\u2019s donning a tux follows other conversations he and Paramount have had with a range of entities in the region. Nearly three years ago, longtime Paramount Skydance backer RedBird Capital\u00a0formed a joint venture<\/a>\u00a0with Abu Dhabi-based International Media Investments, putting former NBC and CNN chief Jeff Zucker in charge of its investments in media and sports. Zuffa Boxing, a new circuit formed by Ari Emanuel\u2019s TKO and entertainment firm Sela, will have its bouts streamed exclusively on Paramount+. Zuffa\u2019s leadership team includes HE Turki Alalshikh chairman of the General Entertainment Authority and president of the Audi Boxing Federation.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe tempo of announcements has been accelerating. Disney is building a theme park in Abu Dhabi<\/a>. Saudi-backed\u00a0Arena SNK Studios just launched<\/a>, with former Lionsgate exec\u00a0Erik Feig\u00a0at the helm of the film and TV entity as CEO and former Disney film chief Sean Bailey on the board of directors. With sports investments booming, the Saudis have bankrolled a challenger to the PGA Tour in LIV Golf, Qatar has hosted the World Cup.<\/p>\n

\n\tExecutive jets have been flying in both directions in recent weeks. Comcast\u2019s Roberts traveled to Saudi Arabia to scope out the potential of building a theme park there. Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, chair of the Saudi Esports Federation and Saudi Games and Entertainment, met Tuesday with U.S. producers and executives at the Peninsula Hotels in Beverly Hills.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt feels like a full-court press on Hollywood,\u201d one attendee of the lunch told Deadline. <\/p>\n

\n\tAmid the swirl of interest in Hollywood, one question is whether any such deal would be so great as to draw additional federal scrutiny, beyond antitrust concerns. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, chaired by the secretary of the treasury, assesses potential national security risks of foreign direct investment. While the president has cited the assessment to block transactions in the semiconductor and aerospace industries, lawmakers have sought greater scrutiny of foreign investment in other sectors. In 2016, they raised concerns over Chinese-owned Dalian Wanda\u2019s acquisition of major American movie studios, including Legendary Entertainment and theater chains. And the committee also scrutinized TikTok\u2019s Chinese ownership.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for WBD, Paramount is still widely regarded as the one to beat in the chase for a few reasons. It is the only party in pursuit of the whole company, and Ellison was joined by his management team in a \u201creverse management presentation\u201d on the Warner lot, outlining their vision for operating the WBD assets.<\/p>\n

\n\tComcast and Netflix, to this point, are only sizing up the studio-and streaming half of WBD, which has separately declared its intention to split into two companies by mid 2026 if an acquisition doesn\u2019t occur before then. A full sale at a good price is a neater solution that it would be hard for the board to dismiss. President Trump favors the Ellisons. He has not in the past had kind words for Roberts, although Comcast is a donor to his new ballroom. Rep. Daryl Issa this week raised an objection to Netflix and HBO Max merging on antitrust grounds.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe resources of the Ellison family are considerable, as are their connections. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, David\u2019s father, is the second richest person in the world. Already, Paramount has made three bids, the last at $23.50 a share. Each was rejected by the WBD board. A report in Axios said WBD had asked Paramount to increase its bid to $30 a share. That might be too much of a stretch for the Ellisons considering the shares were considerably lower pre-takeover speculation. But a $27 or $28? Maybe.<\/p>\n

\n\tA rep for WBD did not respond to Deadline\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tTed Johnson contributed to this report..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Paramount, Comcast and Netflix prepare bids for Warner Bros. Discovery ahead of a Thursday deadline, speculation is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":388893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,8396,3097,183237,15329,271,67,132,68,27281],"class_list":{"0":"post-388892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","10":"tag-middle-east","11":"tag-mohammed-bin-salman","12":"tag-paramount","13":"tag-saudi-arabia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-warner-bros-discovery"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115573925060206824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}