Paramount is relying on Gulf funds for the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

According to The Wall Street Journal and Variety, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has agreed to invest approximately $10 billion in Paramount. Funds controlled by the states of Qatar and Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) would complete the remainder of the investment. No voting rights for Middle Eastern funds. In previous documents filed with the SEC, Paramount Skydance specified that these Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds had agreed to relinquish all governance rights, including representation on the board of directors, in exchange for their investments in non-voting shares. This arrangement allows the transaction to escape scrutiny by CFIUS, the Treasury Department body responsible for assessing potential national security risks related to foreign investment in U.S. companies. Several US senators have already denounced the lack of oversight by CFIUS in this matter, while others have called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct a thorough analysis of the role played by foreign investors in the deal. With a transaction estimated at $110 billion, it's going to take some big box office hits. These $24 billion, however, represent only a portion of the overall transaction, estimated at $110 billion, including debt, in Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal remains subject to regulatory approvals in both the United States and Europe, although both groups still say they aim to finalize it by the end of the third quarter of this year. Warner Bros. Discovery has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for April 23, during which the vote on the Paramount Skydance transaction is to take place. One very simple, almost brutal question remains: films must now be produced to make a machine of this scale profitable. And not just any films. Solid successes, titles capable of generating desire, revenue, and, ideally, longevity. At this level of investment, "average" bets may no longer suffice.