00:00Michelle, just a few minutes ago, we were talking about the potential for, or not the potential,
00:04but Warner Brothers are basically urging folks to actually embrace the Netflix deal. Now we're
00:10learning that Jared Kushner and Affinity Partners are apparently out of the Paramount Skydance
00:15deal side of this deal when it comes to the financing. Yeah, so it's evolving very rapidly.
00:20Lots has been happening just in the past few minutes. But what we do know so far is that
00:25Affinity Capital is dropping out of their effort to help finance the Paramount deal.
00:30We don't know exactly why, other than that they're saying that the dynamics around the
00:34investment have changed. I'm sure more will come out in the coming days and hours. But this is
00:39really interesting because Kushner, obviously as the son-in-law of the president, had been seen as
00:44a key figure who might help get a Paramount deal over the line. Without him there, there could be
00:52a view that maybe one ally, they have one fewer ally in the White House. Well, that's what I'm
00:57wondering, Michelle, where this leaves, of course, Paramount, whether or not there's any world in
01:01which they could get this across the lie without Kushner and Affinity. So the other thing to remember
01:06is the news that we just broke a couple of minutes ago as well, is that the Warner Brothers board is
01:11expected to, within hours or possibly tomorrow, urge investors to reject the Paramount offer. It already
01:18agreed to a deal with Netflix. So at the end of the day, it's still going to come down to whether
01:22Paramount comes back with a higher offer, you know, whether it is able to propose something that does
01:27meet Warner Brothers' concerns. But until then, you know, they have this deal with Netflix and
01:34they'll be shepherding that through the regulatory process.
01:37I mean, there was other money involved in this. And I'm wondering if any of that money sort of steps up
01:42and maybe fills the void as to whatever whatever Affinity is leaving behind. So it does seem like
01:47a lot of the equity and debt that was committed to this was there were changes in who was contributing
01:53what. Paramount has said in its filings that, you know, Ellison and his trust, the trust that holds
01:59all of Larry Ellison's wealth, is the ultimate backstop of the 40 billion dollars or so of equity
02:06that is being committed to this Paramount offer. And so even if, you know, parties like Affinity or some of
02:12the sovereign wealth funds to pull out, the thought is that Ellison and his his trust will be there to
02:18to backstop the deal and and step up for, you know, any of the commitments that that fall away.
02:23But that also speaks to the concern that we're hearing the Warner Brothers board has with the
02:27Paramount offer, which is that the financing there might the financing might not be as tight as
02:32Paramount is making it out to be.
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