Middle East to fund $24B of Paramount’s Warner Bros. Discovery takeover

Paramount owner David Ellison is getting a little help from his friends … in the Middle East.

Ellison’s company was successfully able to wiggle its way into a purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this year, supplanting Netflix as the future owner of the oft-transacted media conglomerate. How Ellison and his billionaire father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, would fund the purchase was regularly at the center of takeover talks. Paramount amended its proposals countless times to assuage financing concerns held by the Warner Bros. Discovery board.

Eventually, the company submitted an all-cash bid backed by the Ellison fortune. But questions still remained as to where other funding for the debt-fueled deal, valued at $110 billion, was coming from. Paramount had received $54 billion in financing from a trio of American firms: Bank of America, Citigroup, and the private-equity firm Apollo Global Management.

Now, The Wall Street Journal reports that an additional $24 billion is being funded by three Middle East sovereign-wealth funds. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) will provide “roughly $10 billion,” while the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co. will make up the remaining $14 billion.

Initially, Paramount had vehemently denied it would take any funding from the Middle East after a Variety report indicated the company was exploring that route in November. Later, however, the company disclosed that the three funds would contribute $24 billion to help offset the cost for the Ellison family.

Per the Journal report, the sovereign-wealth funds will not have voting rights in the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery entity. Additionally, the investment isn’t expected to trigger any further regulatory review.

The report also confirms the timeline in which the company expects to receive regulatory approval. Last week, Puck indicated that CBS Sports and TNT Sports were preparing to combine in the third quarter of 2026 if all goes according to plan. The Journal reports that “executives have told employees to prepare to close as soon as the end of July.”

While the impact these investments could have on sports media is not immediate, it’s important to note there’s now a connection between Paramount and these sovereign-wealth funds. Saudi Arabia’s PIF has already invested in many sports across the globe, most notably LIV Golf. Qatar has similarly focused on investments in sports, including purchasing a minority stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the company that owns the Washington Wizards and Capitals and operates the regional sports network by the same name.

Who knows whether these connections will manifest into anything sports-related? Perhaps Paramount will begin taking an interest in leagues that its Middle Eastern backers have invested in. Maybe there will be sponsorship opportunities on properties Paramount already owns. There are all sorts of reasons these funds would want influence over Paramount, even if that influence doesn’t come in the form of voting rights.

And given these funds’ demonstrated interest in global sports, it’s not a huge jump to believe that there could be some visible impact on the future combined CBS Sports-TNT Sports down the line.