Jared Kushner is walking away from Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
Affinity Partners, a Florida-based private equity firm founded by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, will not participate in financing Paramount’s $108 billion bid for WBD, a person close to the matter told Business Insider. The person said Affinity was expected to invest $200 million, a relatively small amount of the total bid.
In a statement to various news outlets, an Affinity spokesperson confirmed the end of the firm’s participation.
“The dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we initially became involved in October. We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer,” the spokesperson said.
Affinity did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment.
Affinity and Jared Kushner were identified as a financing partner in Paramount’s 367-page SEC filing on December 8, in which it made the bid for WBD. Its other external financing partners include wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
Kushner’s father-in-law’s presence looms large in the deal. President Donald Trump, who said he would be involved, has long-standing ties to David Ellison’s father, Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, who is backing the Paramount bid.
While Trump publicly praised Netflix and its co-CEO, Ted Sarandos, the president also said that a combo of Netflix and WBD “could be a problem” due to the size.
Kushner’s exit is the latest development in the media war among Paramount Skydance, Netflix, and WBD.
On December 5, Netflix announced that it would acquire WBD for an equity value of $72 billion. The streaming giant edged out other bidders, like Paramount and Comcast.
Days later, Paramount launched a hostile bid of $30 per share for all of WBD, with CEO David Ellison urging WBD’s shareholders to tender their shares and switch teams from Netflix to Paramount.
He wrote a letter to the shareholders on December 10, criticizing WBD’s advisors for not giving Paramount’s offer the same treatment as Netflix’s. He described the sales process as “opaque.”
Paramount’s stock price is down more than 5% over the past five days but up 32% since the start of the year. WBD’s stock price is up about 170% since the start of the year.
