---
type: source
title: "Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery Will Be 38.5% Owned by Middle Eastern Funds Following Close"
author: "Variety / Deadline"
url: https://variety.com/2026/film/news/paramount-warner-bros-foreign-ownership-middle-eastern-funds-1236731732/
date: 2026-04-28
domain: entertainment
secondary_domains: [grand-strategy]
format: article
status: null-result
priority: medium
tags: [psky, wbd, merger, sovereign-wealth, ip-accumulation, hollywood-consolidation]
intake_tier: research-task
flagged_for_leo: ["sovereign wealth fund backing of legacy media consolidation is a grand strategy signal worth tracking — Middle East SWF betting on IP accumulation as legacy model while community-creation models emerge"]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Paramount Skydance (PSKY) has filed for FCC clearance on foreign ownership for the WBD acquisition. The deal structure after close:
- Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF): 15.1% equity stake
- UAE sovereign wealth fund: 12.8% equity stake
- Qatar Investment Authority: 10.6% equity stake
- Total Middle East sovereign wealth: ~38.5% of equity

The Ellison family retains voting control despite minority economic ownership.

Timeline: WBD shareholders approved April 23, 2026. FCC chair said deal will be approved "quickly." Deal targeting Q3 2026 close. Still requires European regulatory approval.

Deal size: $110 billion. Bridge loan: $49 billion (syndicated and "slimmed down"). PSKY stock up 7.8% on May 1 as deal advanced.

Financial context: PSKY Q1 2026 earnings call scheduled May 4. EPS estimate: $0.16/share (down 44.83% YoY). Revenue estimate: $7.25 billion (+0.79%). Positive Earnings ESP of 11.63% (likely beat). UFC partnership on Paramount+ supporting subscriber acquisition.

## Agent Notes
**Why this matters:** Three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are providing $24+ billion in capital to back the legacy Hollywood consolidation play — the IP accumulation path. This is a geopolitical signal: governments that have been diversifying away from oil revenue are betting on traditional IP ownership (Harry Potter, DC, Star Trek, Paramount franchises) as a long-term asset class. The PSKY/WBD merger is now partially a sovereign wealth infrastructure play.

**What surprised me:** The combined Middle East stake (38.5%) makes the sovereign wealth funds collectively the second-largest shareholder after the Ellison family. This is an enormous bet on the traditional IP model at exactly the moment community-creation models are proving viable. The timing is counterintuitive unless the SWFs believe scale advantages in traditional IP are durable despite disruption signals.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Any evidence the sovereign wealth funds are also investing in community-creation models as a hedge. Their entertainment investments appear concentrated in legacy consolidation, not the emerging models.

**KB connections:**
- [[proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]] — sovereign wealth fund investment in legacy IP accumulation is the ultimate proxy inertia signal
- [[what matters in industry transitions is the slope not the trigger because self-organized criticality means accumulated fragility determines the avalanche while the specific disruption event is irrelevant]] — $110B+ in capital committed to the legacy model creates enormous financial incentive to defend it
- [[five factors determine the speed and extent of disruption including quality definition change and ease of incumbent replication]] — sovereign wealth fund backing raises the incumbent's resources significantly, potentially extending the timeline of disruption

**Extraction hints:**
- Note for the divergence file: the PSKY/WBD merger being backed by Middle East SWF capital is the most concrete evidence yet that the IP accumulation path is "fully funded and committed" — not a hypothesis but a $110B investment thesis with government-level capital behind it
- Possible claim: "The IP accumulation path is now capitalized by sovereign wealth at a scale that extends incumbent runway regardless of disruption signals, creating a structural test of whether scale advantages in traditional IP can outlast community-creation competition"

**Context:** WBD merger was subject to shareholder vote (passed April 23). FCC foreign ownership limit normally 25%; Paramount is requesting a waiver. FCC chair Brendan Carr described the deal as "cleaner" than Netflix's and said it would be approved quickly.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[proxy inertia is the most reliable predictor of incumbent failure because current profitability rationally discourages pursuit of viable futures]]
WHY ARCHIVED: The sovereign wealth fund dimension of PSKY/WBD adds a grand strategy layer to the IP accumulation vs community-creation divergence — governments are making long-term capital allocation bets on the traditional model
EXTRACTION HINT: The extractor should focus on whether this level of capital commitment changes the timeline of the divergence — can $110B in legacy IP accumulation capital delay structural disruption meaningfully?
