Paramount has confirmed in an SEC filing that three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are among the outside investors in its planned $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, and Qatar’s Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) are contributing a combined total of approximately $24 billion to the transaction, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. The SEC filing itself did not specify individual amounts, but Saudi Arabia’s PIF is understood to be taking the largest share at around $10 billion.
The three sovereign funds are joining the Ellison family, RedBird Capital, and LionTree Investment as co-investors in the deal. Under the terms disclosed, the Middle Eastern funds will not receive board seats in the combined company and will not hold governance rights over Paramount or Warner Bros. Discovery if the acquisition closes. That structure is designed to address potential regulatory concerns about foreign influence over a major US media company.
Stock climbs on the disclosure
Paramount’s share price rose 10.7% on the day of the SEC filing, closing at $10.90. Investors responded positively to confirmation that Paramount is distributing the financial burden of a deal this size across a broad group of outside partners. By limiting its own capital exposure, the company reduces the risk of diluting existing shareholders or taking on unsustainable debt to close the transaction.
Lawmakers push for scrutiny
The confirmation of Middle Eastern involvement has triggered a response from US legislators. Democrats in Congress have raised national security and media ownership concerns, citing the fact that Paramount owns CBS News and local broadcast stations in cities across the country. A completed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery would bring CNN under the same ownership as well.
Lawmakers have called on Congress to conduct its own review of the deal and have urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to examine it. The FCC holds direct authority over Paramount’s broadcast licenses, giving it significant leverage during any ownership transfer. US law imposes restrictions on foreign ownership of broadcast licensees, and the involvement of state-controlled sovereign wealth funds raises questions about how those rules apply to equity stakes structured without governance rights.
What comes next
The merger still requires regulatory approval from multiple agencies. The FCC will need to sign off on the transfer of CBS’s broadcast licenses, and antitrust regulators will review the broader combination. The disclosure of sovereign wealth fund investment, and the political reaction it has produced, adds another variable to a regulatory review already complicated by the deal’s scale and reach. The FCC has not indicated how it will treat the governance-rights carve-out under its foreign ownership rules, and that question is expected to draw close attention during the approval process.