US FCC approves foreign investment in Paramount Warner merger

A US judge has temporarily blocked the takeover pending a trial in March on a legal challenge filed by a dozen US states. The Justice Department and FCC previously approved the merger.

The FCC said Middle Eastern investors could own about 85% of the equity in Paramount after the deal closed, including 15.1% for the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Paramount said sovereign wealth funds would own 38.5% after the deal closed.

Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said on Thursday, "The FCC just let some of the most repressive governments in the world indirectly control nearly all of a combined Paramount-Warner Bros. An investment this large in one of America's biggest media companies doesn't just buy equity, it secures influence over what gets said and what gets made."

The Federal Communications Commission approved a Paramount Skydance request to allow foreign investors to back its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery but said they could not hold voting stock.