US film producer David Ellison arrives for Paramount’s “Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts” premiere in New York City on June 5, 2023.

Angela Weiss | Afp | Getty Images

Paramount Skydance on Monday guaranteed the backing of billionaire Larry Ellison in an amended offer for Warner Bros. Discovery — a clear response to questions raised by the WBD board of directors.

“Larry Ellison has agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for the offer and any damages claims against Paramount,” the company said in a news release.

Paramount said Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, has also agreed not to revoke the Ellison family trust or adversely transfer its assets during a pending transaction. The guarantee does not replace committed funds from RedBird Capital and sovereign wealth funds, but constitutes a new layer of security for the commitments.

Paramount Skydance is offering $30 per share, all cash, for Warner Bros. Discovery in a hostile attempt that’s meant to rival an agreement with Netflix.

Last week, Warner Bros. Discovery Chairman Samuel Di Piazza told CNBC’s David Faber the board had concerns about the supposed backing of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison in the bid.

“We were not confident that one of the richest people in the world would be there at closing,” Di Piazza said at the time. “Doing a deal is great; closing a deal is better.”

WBD earlier this month agreed to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix in a transaction valued at roughly $83 billion on an enterprise basis. Paramount wants to buy the entirety of WBD, including its portfolio of TV networks, and says its offer comes with an enterprise value of $108.4 billion.

Paramount notably did not increase its bid on Monday, reiterating that it believes the deal is superior, though Paramount did hike its proposed reverse breakup fee to match that of Netflix’s offer.

WBD confirmed receipt of the amended offer on Monday and said in a release it would “carefully review and consider Paramount Skydance’s offer in accordance with the terms of Warner Bros. Discovery’s agreement with Netflix.”

“What we’ve done in this amended filing is we’ve cleared the brush of obfuscation around the offer,” said Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird Capital Partners, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.

RedBird is an investor in Paramount Skydance and has also committed to financing the proposed Paramount acquisition of WBD.

Cardinale said Monday that as part of the amended filing Larry Ellison would back the bid through an irrevocable trust, which is anchored by 1.2 billion Oracle shares.

“Like we’ve done through the six bids that we’ve made, we are being responsive to what their concerns are,” Cardinale said.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery rose 3% in early trading Monday, while Paramount gained more than 7%. Netflix’s stock was down nearly 1%.

Paramount vs. Netflix

Paramount made three offers for WBD in the fall, which were all rejected by the company. WBD then launched a formal sale process that brought in offers from other bidders, including Netflix.

Cardinale said Paramount’s unsolicited offers likely spurred WBD to open up to a sale, putting Paramount “a little bit on the back foot.”

During Monday’s CNBC interview Cardinale, like Ellison on CNBC last week, appealed directly to WBD shareholders.

“At the end of the day … the shareholders own this company. The board doesn’t own it. [CEO] David Zaslav doesn’t own this company,” said Cardinale. “This should be a lot more simple than it is. It’s very simple.”

Besides the question of value between the two bids, the question of regulatory approval has also been raised by Paramount as well as industry onlookers.

“The Netflix deal kills competition,” Cardinale said, adding that a combination of streaming platforms Netflix and HBO Max would create 420 million subscribers under one roof. “No wonder the constituents in the ecosystem — talent, creators, theatrical exhibitors — are losing their minds on this because they see the pricing power that they will create.”

Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters have said they are confident their deal would pass regulatory muster. Sarandos has also issued reassurances about the future of the theatrical slate for WBD under Netflix’s ownership.

At a conference earlier in December, Sarandos argued the Netflix offer for WBD’s assets would preserve jobs at a time of mounting layoffs across the industry.

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Revelers attend the annual LGBTQ+ Capital Pride parade in Washington D.C., U.S., June 8, 2024.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Companies that were once loud and proud in supporting LGBTQ+ community celebrations are pulling back.

LGBTQ+ Pride festivals across the country have faced significant sponsorship challenges this year, with some losing corporate partners that collectively provided six-figure donations. As a result, organizations say they’ve had to modify their programming, pivot to other funding sources and reconsider their dependencies on corporate dollars.

Many companies have cited economic concerns as their impetus to delay or exit partnerships with Pride groups. But LGBTQ+ group leaders also noted an increasingly hostile climate for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that has prompted some businesses to rethink their support. In turn, Pride organizations are seeking clarity on how much their values still align with those of their corporate contributors.

“For this many companies to be dropping off, I think, points to that we’re in a different political environment than we have been maybe in a long, long time,” San Francisco Pride executive director Suzanne Ford told CNBC.

Financial challenges

Many LGBTQ+ groups consider certain corporations to be longtime partners, but organizers said they often ink one-year deals that are negotiated in the months before the annual Pride celebrations. That leaves them vulnerable if once-reliable companies decide to withhold their dollars, and several organizations said they are facing sponsorship deficits that weigh on budgets and plans for festivals in the summer.

Among the largest shortfalls, Seattle Pride and New York City Pride say they have to make up for $350,000 deficits, and San Francisco Pride and Minnesota’s Twin Cities Pride say they are each facing a $200,000 cut.

Some festivals have named which previous sponsors aren’t returning, while others said they are keeping that information private to avoid burning bridges.

San Francisco Pride’s Ford said Anheuser-Busch, Comcast, Diageo and Nissan have told the organization that they are not sponsoring the festival this year. All were previously longtime partners, Ford said.

The companies gave a variety of reasons for the change.

A Comcast representative said the company is participating in other Pride events in San Francisco and is supporting Pride parades in California in Oakland, Sacramento and Silicon Valley. A Diageo representative said the company will appear at Pride events across the country through its Smirnoff brand this year. A Nissan spokesperson said in a statement that the automaker will not sponsor any Pride festivals this year as it reviews all marketing and sales spending. Anheuser-Busch didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Washington, D.C.-based Capital Pride Alliance, which is organizing the biannual, global WorldPride celebration this year, said Comcast and Deloitte had regularly supported the group’s Pride festival but declined to do so this year, while Booz Allen Hamilton initially committed to sponsoring the event before later withdrawing.

A Booz Allen Hamilton spokesperson said in a statement that the defense giant’s sponsorship decisions do not reflect a pullback in support for employees.

Ryan Bos, Capital Pride Alliance’s executive director, said economic uncertainty, safety and security issues, and fear of losing federal funding have all discouraged companies from returning as sponsors. He highlighted President Donald Trump’s executive order ordering government agencies to investigate and sue companies supporting DEI.

“The sad thing is corporations have long been the first to step into our corner,” Bos said, citing companies’ support of domestic partner benefits and LGBTQ+ employment programs. “The fact that some are questioning their commitment now during this uncertain time is very disheartening, hurtful and frustrating for many.”

Parade participants are seen marching during the 2024 Kentuckiana Pride Parade on June 15, 2024 in Louisville, Kentucky. 

Stephen J. Cohen | Getty Images

Ford said the White House’s anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and executive orders targeting transgender people have impacted corporate America.

“We’ve all seen the culture wars playing out as far as how corporations respond, and I think this is part and parcel of that movement,” she said.

The White House didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Even corporations that are sticking with Pride festivals have reduced their support. Denver Pride’s returning sponsors have pared down their contributions by 62% on average, according to Natalie Zanoni, interim CEO of LGBTQ+ organization The Center on Colfax. The center organizes the Denver Pride celebration, which faces a total deficit of $230,000.

Festivals are also still in wait-and-see mode. St. Pete Pride president Byron Green-Calisch said several sponsors had asked the Tampa Bay, Florida-area organization if they could discuss sponsorships closer to April rather than the usual period beginning in January. As of late March, St. Pete Pride said it had achieved 55% of its fundraising goal, compared with the usual 80% to 90% at this time of year.

Seattle Pride executive director Patti Hearn said the group expects about $400,000 in sponsorships this year, compared with its total budget of $1.5 million. While she said the organization will be able to pull off its planned events this year, it would need to change its programming in the future if its $350,000 deficit became permanent.

Corporate sponsors are responsible for 75% of Twin Cities Pride’s budget, executive director Andi Otto told CNBC. As a result of sponsorship losses, the Minnesota organization had to cut a performance stage for the upcoming festival and will have to reduce its year-round programming, Otto said.

Not all businesses are taking a step back from festival sponsorships. Several groups said Delta Air Lines, among others, remains a strong supporter of their events. Others said small businesses have been steadfast.

Reevaluating partnerships

Pride organizations are also reexamining their relationships with sponsors that have rolled back DEI policies or visible support for their communities, further complicating their financial outlook.

Seattle Pride hasn’t engaged with previous sponsor Boeing this year, Hearn said, because she had a sense that the aerospace giant didn’t align with the organization’s values and would decline to return as a festival partner. Boeing reportedly shut down its DEI team in November, according to Bloomberg. The company didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Cincinnati Pride development director Jake Hitch said the Ohio group has rejected sponsorships from previous partners this year based on their nondiscrimination policies, involvement in the LGBTQ+ community and support for employees.

“With everything happening politically and in 2025 that is consistently coming against our community, we thought, what better time to really reset our expectations and align with our community on what they want to see?” Hitch said.

Twin Cities Pride dropped Target, which had sponsored its festival for over 15 years, after looking into the retailer’s DEI policy changes announced in late January. Changes to its supplier diversity commitment, community representation principles and participation in external DEI surveys concerned Otto enough for him to refuse the $50,000 sponsorship offer, he said.

“It did not feel right for my community to accept that money,” Otto said.

Target didn’t respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Pride Month merchandise is displayed at a Target store on May 31, 2023 in San Francisco, California. 

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

San Francisco Pride’s Ford said the group no longer has a relationship with previous sponsor Meta, in part due to its changes to fact-checking policy but also because Meta staffers who had previously worked with SF Pride had left the company in the past couple of years.

A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that since 2024, the company has allowed local employee resource groups to make their own decisions on Pride sponsorships.

Some organizations have maintained productive relationships with corporations that have modified their DEI efforts, although understanding the policy changes can present its own challenge.

Dave Wait, chairperson of Detroit’s Motor City Pride, said some community members were spreading misinformation on social media about a sponsor shutting down its LGBTQ+ health care services, and that Motor City Pride had to clear it up with the company before signing the sponsorship deal for this year.

Twin Cities Pride’s Otto said although festival sponsor 3M has removed several DEI-related pages from its website, the industrial giant explained to the organization that it was only changing the language, not the substance of its DEI policies. 3M did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Lowe’s had sponsored Charlotte Pride’s festival and parade in North Carolina for nine years, but in August the home retailer ended its support for parades amid other DEI policy reversals. Lowe’s has pivoted to funding the LGBTQ+ group’s job fair and scholarship and internship programs, Charlotte Pride managing director Meredith Thompson told CNBC.

Some community members spoke out against the decision to continue working with Lowe’s, Thompson said, but she didn’t hesitate to do so because of their previous relationship.

“My attitude is, we need our corporate sponsors and we meet them where they are,” Thompson said.

Lowe’s did not respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Some national corporations that have curtailed DEI efforts are still showing up as sponsors through local affiliates and operators. McDonald’s, which retired numerous diversity goals in January, has regional operators sponsoring WorldPride and Charlotte Pride. And although Anheuser-Busch is not sponsoring San Francisco Pride or Pride St. Louis this year, Bud Light distributor Adams Beverages is returning as a sponsor for Charlotte Pride.

Diversifying funding

While LGBTQ+ organizations have long debated the role that corporations should play in Pride celebrations, this year has amplified the idea that Pride groups should rely less on businesses.

Several groups have turned to grassroots campaigns. Twin Cities Pride started a crowdfunding effort to help compensate for dropping Target, and it eventually raised over $110,000. Stonewall Columbus has received $8,500 in donations, Cincinnati Pride has netted over $43,000 and San Francisco Pride has fundraised $35,000, all through crowdfunding.

Green-Calisch of St. Pete Pride said the group will focus more on community donations moving forward and will also increase its year-round presence so that donors understand the work that the organization does beyond Pride Month.

“We are the people. This is about people power and being able to use your dollar to advocate,” Green-Calisch said.

Local governments have also grown more involved in some festivals. Stonewall Columbus executive director Densil Porteous said the Ohio-based group has received increased support from Franklin County, Columbus’ home county, to help make up for the organization’s $96,000 sponsorship deficit.

Pride Northwest executive director Debra Porta said the group is “very intentional” about not overly depending on corporate sponsors for Portland Pride, with its top sponsorship level totaling just $15,000. Other festivals offer sponsorship packages with costs that stretch well beyond $100,000.

Pride groups say that above all they’re focused on their communities, not sponsors. Although some festivals have ticketed programs or charge for entry, many organizations stress the importance of making Pride as accessible as possible.

“We never want to put the burden back on our community, because this is supposed to be their celebration,” Twin Cities Pride’s Otto said.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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