David Ellison fought the law and won. Now he has to pony up the cash for his prize. Now that Paramount reached an agreement with state attorneys general to close its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, all eyes are on the $49 billion of mostly loans and bonds, nearly all of it expected to be rated investment-grade, that Paramount’s bankers will put together in the coming weeks.
It’s one of the most highly anticipated credit launches this year — a genuine new issuance in a sea of refinancings, and one that has nothing to do with data centers. Massive media deals have gotten love from investors in the past, including when Electronic Arts went private and lined up $20 billion of debt last year.
The settlement also defangs the idea that state AGs would step in as a counterweight to the Trump Justice Department’s light-touch antitrust enforcement. Even California’s Rob Bonta settled for far less than he wanted, and Connecticut’s AG said he was “deeply disappointed that we could not do more.”
