Paramount is buying CNN. Now Musk could be buying into Paramount

Paramount hasn’t even finished taking over CNN, and already the ownership picture is changing again. Musk could bring more money into the deal while Ellison is still deciding what to do with CNN’s leadership. That’s a lot of moving pieces for one media empire.

PARAMOUNTWARNERBROS tapping MUSK for cash?

Paramount, looking to firm up its financial picture as it digests Warner Bros. Discovery, is looking for fresh sources of cash. Executives at the company have discussed asking Elon Musk to become part of a syndicate of equity investors into Paramount, according to people familiar with the matter.

Musk’s name is one of a number of wealthy individuals that Paramount CEO David Ellison has considered tapping for the syndicate, the people said. Musk and David Ellison’s father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison, have long been close, and it is in part the elder Ellison’s money — and connections — that made Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. possible. Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed more than $40 billion of the equity financing for Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros.

Larry Ellison invested $1 billion in Musk’s 2022 deal to take X, formerly Twitter, private. He also invested in Tesla in 2018, and served on the company’s board of directors for years.

The size of a potential Musk investment could not be determined. A spokesperson for Paramount declined comment. Musk did not return a request for comment.

Ellison ‘hesitant’ to give CNN to Bari…

Paramount’s mega-merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is finally in the clear — and hopes and fears that Bari Weiss is now poised to become the queen of TV news broadcasting are coming to a head.

It’s no secret that the 42-year-old editor-in-chief of CBS News has been eyeing a takeover of the left-leaning CNN as Paramount’s $81 billion acquisition of the cable network’s owner WBD is getting cleared in a truce with 12 state attorneys general led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“Bari is large and in charge,” one media industry executive told me this week, recounting the Tuesday-morning chatter in media circles.