Elon Musk invests $1 billion in David Ellison’s Skydance
Elon Musk put $1 billion into Skydance.
The short version
- David Ellison runs the massive new media giant.
- Discovery carries $82.5 billion in debt.
- Ellison aims for $6 billion in yearly cuts.
- The debt sits on big television and movie networks.
Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in David Ellison’s Skydance, according to the New York Post. The investment lands just over two weeks after Skydance completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal that left the combined Hollywood giant with roughly $82.5 billion in debt.
David Ellison, the media mogul leading the company, is pursuing billions in annual cost savings. Skydance board member Laurene Powell Jobs and other backers made equity investments around the same time. The article did not specify the size of Musk’s ownership stake or whether he received a board seat.
The investment deepens Musk’s business ties to the family of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who has publicly described the Tesla boss as a close friend. Larry Ellison’s trust committed $1 billion to Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter, matching the amount Musk is now reported to have invested in his son’s media empire.
The Warner deal added CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. to Skydance’s portfolio, which already included CBS and Paramount+. The combined company carried about $82.5 billion in debt against $7.9 billion in cash as of June 30, according to financial statements. Ellison is targeting at least $6 billion in annualized cost savings within three years.
Billionaire cable mogul John Malone suggested that Skydance could eventually strike a distribution deal with Musk’s Starlink satellite network, although no agreement has been announced. Neither Musk nor Paramount immediately responded to requests for comment.
