On Monday, Paramount Skydance launched a $108bn takeover bid for Warner Bros Discovery, the entertainment giant that owns Hollywood movie studios, along with CNN, HBO and other media businesses. The bid is led by David Ellison, son of the tech billionaire Larry Ellison – a prominent Donald Trump supporter and Republican donor. Netflix had already prevailed over Paramount in a previous bidding competition for the purchase, but Trump announced on Sunday that he would “be involved” in his administration’s review of the Netflix deal. The president suggested the sale “could be a problem” because Netflix is already dominant in the US streaming market.
Paramount left out a significant fact in the press release announcing its offer: the bid includes funding from the private equity firm owned by Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, as well as three Arab monarchies, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which collectively have billions of dollars in ongoing ventures involving the Trump family business. Those details were buried in required paperwork filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, David Ellison, Paramount’s CEO, argued that his company’s offer would face less scrutiny from US regulators because Paramount is smaller than Netflix and has a friendly relationship with the Trump administration. In the president’s transactional and often corrupt approach to governance, it also certainly helps that Paramount’s bid directly involves Kushner and the Arab petrostates that have struck lucrative business deals with the Trump Organization.
Presidents are not meant to exert influence over the US regulators who review corporate mergers, but Trump is disdainful of most precedents that seek to limit presidential power and he has inserted himself into the Warner Bros negotiations. It’s also the latest example of Trump using his vast power to enrich his family and supporters through his personalized politics, where he blurs government and business interests. In Trump’s world, personal access is more important than institutional process – a system favored by many authoritarian leaders.
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