By Jody Godoy
April 27 (Reuters) – Paramount Skydance asked the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to greenlight the foreign investments backing its acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, according to regulatory filings made public on Monday.
A Paramount spokesperson said the filing is completely standard for investments such as the ones at issue and is not a condition to closing Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros. FCC rules govern foreign investments in U.S. television broadcasting.
Current and expected foreign investors will own slightly less than 50% of Paramount’s equity after the investments, but the family of Paramount CEO David Ellison will continue to control voting shares, the company said in its filing.
Paramount said last year that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Company, and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) have agreed to back its proposed takeover of Warner Bros.
(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
