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US President Donald Trump bought more than USD 1 million worth of corporate bonds from Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, days after the two companies struck a deal, under which Netflix is to acquire WB's studios and streaming businesses.
According to a financial disclosure form released on Friday by the White House, Trump bought between USD 250,001 and USD 500,000 of Netflix debt securities on two separate dates, December 12 and December 16, Variety reported. He also bought the same range of bonds for Discovery Communications (a WBD subsidiary) on those same dates. The Trump financial disclosure covered transactions spanning mid-November to late December. The financial disclosures for Trump, released through the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, show that most of his acquisitions were municipal bonds from cities, local school districts, utilities and hospitals. He also purchased bonds from other corporations, including SiriusXM, Boeing, GM, Macy's, Occidental Petroleum and Whirlpool. In December, Trump met with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the White House to discuss the Warner Bros. Discovery deal. The purchases of Netflix and WBD debt securities happened just a few days after the two companies finalised their $83 billion megadeal. Meanwhile, Paramount is trying to pry WBD away from Netflix with a hostile tender offer, and a potential proxy fight. Paramount claimed the Netflix deal is inferior in terms of value, timing and certainty of closure. According to the company, Netflix's consideration includes USD 23.25 in cash, Netflix shares currently worth USD 4.11, and equity in a to-be-issued Global Networks business, which Paramount says it has analysed as having zero equity value. Paramount also alleged that WBD has not disclosed how the debt transfer from Global Networks could reduce the cash and stock consideration payable to shareholders. The company said WBD has failed to provide customary financial disclosures in its filings, including how it valued the Global Networks equity, how it valued the overall Netflix transaction, how the purchase price reduction for debt works, and how it applied a "risk adjustment" to Paramount's USD 30 per share offer. (ANI)
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