BOLD: The Ellison Family Bought Hollywood for $17 Billion. The Debt Is $84 Billion.

Published October 15, 2026 • By Naeemofficial782

The Ellison family's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery is complete. Here is the number that matters: $84.3 billion in net debt.

David Ellison and his family invested roughly $17 billion to close the $110 billion acquisition. That equity came alongside $24 billion from three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds — Saudi Arabia's PIF, Qatar Investment Authority, and Abu Dhabi's L'imad Holding.

The Ellison family's stake is significant. The debt is staggering.

The Debt Stack

Skydance now carries approximately $80 billion in total debt. The company raised $52 billion through loans and bonds in just one week to finance the deal.

The leverage ratio at close is 6.16x on realized-synergy EBITDA. Management's own target is below 3.0x by 2029. S&P Global projects leverage will still be 4.4x in 2029 — nearly 50% above target.

The Cost of Delay

Paramount initially secured a $57.5 billion bridge loan from Bank of America and Citigroup. By the time the deal closed, borrowing costs had risen. The extra annual interest burden from the delay: $250 million to over $500 million.

S&P downgraded Skydance's credit rating from BB+ to BB — junk status. Fitch followed. The 5-year credit default swap hit a record 576 basis points, implying a 39.5% probability of default.

The Collateral

Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder, pledged 67 million additional Oracle shares as collateral for personal loans — a 19% increase. At the time, those shares were worth $9.2 billion.

But Oracle stock has since dropped. On October 14, 2026, ORCL closed at $130.55, down 8.83% for the day. Ellison's net worth has fallen from its peak of $370 billion to roughly $194 billion.

The Hollywood Opposition

Over 1,000 actors, writers, and directors signed an open letter opposing the merger, including Jane Fonda, Joaquin Phoenix, Denis Villeneuve, and J.J. Abrams.

"The result will be fewer opportunities for creators, fewer jobs across the production ecosystem, higher costs, and less choice for audiences," the letter read. "Alarmingly, this merger would reduce the number of major U.S. film studios to just four."

The Bottom Line

The Ellison family spent $17 billion to buy a media empire. The debt they took on to do it is five times larger than their own equity. S&P's base case says they cannot hit their leverage targets without fundamental changes to the media business — which is already collapsing.

The bond market has priced a 39.5% chance of default.

This is not a triumphant acquisition. It is a leveraged bet on a shrinking industry, financed with Middle Eastern sovereign wealth and collateralized by a tech stock that is falling.