Jared Kushner's Affinity is stepping away from the Paramount-Warner Bros. bid

Core Insights - Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners will not participate in financing Paramount's $108 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) [1] - Affinity was expected to invest $200 million, a small fraction of the total bid [1] - The dynamics of the investment changed significantly since Affinity's initial involvement in October [2] Group 1: Affinity Partners' Involvement - Affinity Partners was identified as a financing partner in Paramount's SEC filing on December 8 [3] - Other external financing partners include wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi [3] - The presence of President Donald Trump, Kushner's father-in-law, is significant in the deal [3] Group 2: Competitive Landscape - Netflix announced it would acquire WBD for an equity value of $72 billion, surpassing other bidders [4] - Paramount launched a hostile bid of $30 per share for all of WBD, urging shareholders to switch from Netflix to Paramount [5] - Paramount's stock price has decreased by over 5% in the past five days but has increased by 32% since the start of the year, while WBD's stock price has risen about 170% since the beginning of the year [5]