Elon Musk Reportedly Invests $1 Billion in Skydance, Owner of CNN, CBS News and HBO Max

Elon Musk has invested about $1 billion in Skydance ($SKYD), the media company led by David Ellison that owns CNN and CBS News, Semafor reported on Oct. 22, according to The Telegraph. Neither Musk nor Skydance has confirmed the deal. A Skydance spokesperson declined to comment, and a Musk representative did not respond, Variety reported.
Skydance was formed from the roughly $111 billion merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, which closed on Oct. 6. The combined company has annual revenues of roughly $70 billion and more than 200 million streaming subscribers, but also carries about $80 billion in net debt and is targeting $6 billion in cost savings over three years.
It remains unclear whether the money came from Musk personally or from $SPCX, what share price Musk paid, and the size of his resulting stake. No distribution or content partnership has been announced. The $1 billion equals about 2% of the $47 billion Skydance raised in new equity to fund the Warner deal.
Larry Ellison put about $1 billion into Musk's $44 billion Twitter takeover in 2022. Media veteran John Malone suggested $SPCX could invest "$8 billion or $10 billion" in Skydance and predicted a "global output deal" for its content.
The Ellisons and RedBird Capital own 100% of Skydance's voting shares, so a minority investor buying ordinary equity would not get a vote on how the company is run. CNN CEO Mark Thompson said Skydance's leaders will fully support the principle and practice of independent news.
The biggest backers in Skydance's equity raise paid $12 a share. The stock closed at $7.10 on Oct. 20, about 41% below that price, and fell almost 24% on Oct. 14 alone. Analysts' consensus rating is Hold, with an average price target of about $8.87.