Latham & Watkins Advises Paramount Skydance on the Permanent Debt Financing for Its Acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the Largest LBO in History
Latham & Watkins is advising Paramount Skydance Corporation (NASDAQ: PSKY) (Paramount Skydance) on the implementation of permanent debt financing in connection with its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (NASDAQ: WBD), the largest LBO in history and a transaction that will create one of the world’s largest global media and entertainment companies.
As disclosed today, Paramount Skydance entered into new senior secured credit facilities totaling US$10 billion, completing the successful syndication and partial takeout of previously disclosed bridge financing commitments, and amended its existing senior unsecured revolving credit facility to increase committed liquidity to US$5 billion in advance of the closing of the acquisition. The permanent financing was syndicated among a broad group of Paramount Skydance’s relationship banks and institutional lenders and is expected to form a core component of the combined company’s post‑closing capital structure.
Latham & Watkins LLP represents Paramount Skydance in the permanent financing with a debt finance team led by New York partners Josh Tinkelman and Emily Johnson, with associates Chen Tang, Young Joo, Jenny Lyubomudrova, and Kerry Pemberton with assistance from Lilian Law. Advice was also provided on finance matters by Washington, D.C. partner Jason Licht, with associate Jack Anderson; on capital markets matters by New York partners Benjamin Cohen and Kaj Nielsen, with associate Sara Johnson; on corporate matters by New York partner Ian Nussbaum and Chicago partner Max Schleusener, with associates Daniel Weissman, Jamie Reinah, and Emma Giusto; on public company and board representation matters by New York partners Jenna Cooper and Emily Corbi; on tax matters by Los Angeles partner Pardis Zomorodi, with associate Jeremiah Cowen; on structured finance matters by New York partner Carlos Alvarez, with associate Jim Lambert; on entertainment, sports, and media matters by Century City partners Rick Offsay, Nancy Bruington, and Liliana Ranger, with associates Sam Lehman and Jing Cao; on benefits matters by Los Angeles partner Julie Crisp, with counsel Aryeh Zuber and associate Joseph Benedetto; on antitrust matters by associate Doug Tifft; on regulatory matters by Washington, D.C. partners Paul Rosen and James Barker and counsel Ruchi Gill, with associates Matthew Crawford and Maria Stosz;* and on intellectual property and data and technology transactions matters by Orange County partner Ghaith Mahmood, with associates Jesse Kirkland, Azzam Chaudhry, Deborah Hinck, Susana Santos, Bill Kosmidis, and Daniel Barks.
*Admitted to practice in the District of Columbia only.