Kushner’s Affinity Partners withdraws from Warner Bros. Discovery’s Paramount bid

Jared Kushner’s company Affinity Partners leaves paramount skydancehostile takeover bid warner bros discovery.

“With two strong competitors vying to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided not to pursue any further opportunities,” an Affinity spokesperson said in a statement.

“The dynamics of investing have changed significantly since we first began our involvement in October,” the spokesperson said. “We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s proposal.”

Kushner is President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

Affinity’s role in Paramount’s hostile takeover became clear on December 8, when Paramount announced an all-cash, $30-per-share offer for all of WBC.

The offer comes days after streaming giant Netflix announced it had reached an agreement to acquire WBD movie studio and streaming service HBO Max. Warner Bros. plans to spin out Discovery Global, which includes a large portfolio of pay TV networks including CNN and TNT.

President Trump said last week that the proposed Netflix partnership “could be problematic” because of how much market share Netflix would ultimately gain, as it would require regulatory approval.

President Trump said he would be involved in the approval process for the deal.

The financial value of Affinity’s role in Paramount’s bid was not disclosed in documents Paramount filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week.

However, the SEC filing said that in addition to commitments from Affinity and Redbird Capital Partners, there was a $1 billion commitment from Tencent and “a total of $24 billion in commitments from three sovereign wealth funds” in the Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

CNBC asked Affinity about the status of its Gulf commitments, given that Affinity withdrew from the bid.