President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has withdrawn his financial backing for a massive media merger that could give the Trump administration greater influence over a major news network.
Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners, will no longer be supporting Paramount Skydance’s hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, which values the media conglomerate at $108.4 billion.
“With two strong competitors vying to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided no longer to pursue the opportunity,” a spokesperson for the firm told Bloomberg. “We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer.”
Affinity contributed about $200 million in equity toward the move, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
Representatives for Affinity Partners, Paramount, and Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kushner, who is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, founded Affinity in 2021 with funding support from sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East.
The Paramount Skydance bid is also being backed by other state-owned investment funds in the region, including those from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
The news of Kushner’s about-face came after his father-in-law distanced took a fresh swipe at CBS’s 60 Minutes. CBS is a part of the Skydance fold.
“For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before. If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Tuesday.
The colossal battle for ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery, waged between Paramount Skydance and streaming giant Netflix, will have drastic consequences for the media landscape, no matter who emerges as the victor.
Netflix seeks to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming, gaming, and studio properties, including HBO Max and WB Studios, in a $83.7 billion deal. Their deal would consolidate two of the top five streaming platforms—which together account for nearly half the market—under a single banner.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has also said he believes movie theaters are “outdated,” which could impact the future of theater releases if Netflix acquires WB’s substantial film studios.
Paramount, however, seeks total ownership of the conglomerate—including mainstream news network CNN, which Trump considers a major media adversary.
Both deals pose significant antitrust concerns—shaking up the entertainment industry as major players become integrated and competition shrinks.
Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, son of billionaire Oracle co-founder and Trump ally Larry Ellison, has said he would make changes to CNN if the takeover succeeds, which Trump hopes will happen.
“I think the people that have run CNN for the last long period of time are a disgrace. I think it’s imperative that CNN be sold,” Trump told reporters after a roundtable discussion with tech business leaders last week.
“I think CNN should be sold because the people that are running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent.”
Both CEOs have done their best to suck-up to Trump, who said he will oversee the approval of the media mega-deal.
“That’s gotta go through a process, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters at the Kennedy Center Honors on Dec. 7.
“Netflix is a great company; they’ve done a phenomenal job. Ted is a fantastic man, I have a lot of respect for him... but it’s a lot of market share, so we’ll have to see what happens. I’ll be involved in that decision.”
