Paramount Skydance is accusing actor Mark Ruffalo of invoking “antisemitic tropes” in his latest attack on the media giant’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, escalating a public feud over the blockbuster deal.
The company, led by Chairman and CEO David Ellison, issued a lengthy statement Friday after Mr. Ruffalo criticized the transaction on Instagram, where he targeted Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, David Ellison’s father, while raising concerns about Oracle’s technology and its relationship with Israel. The proposed acquisition is valued at roughly $110 billion including debt.
“We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute,” Paramount said in a statement reported by CNN’s Brian Stelter. “Words like ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid,’ applied to a corporate transaction, aren’t just wrong — they’re a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe.”
The company said it does not tolerate prejudice and called for lowering the temperature surrounding the increasingly contentious takeover battle.
“This simply exposes the true motivation of some who have advocated opposition to this transaction,” Paramount said. The company added that its commitment to producing content is accompanied by a commitment to “every story, every storyteller, and no blacklists, no exceptions, for anyone.”
Paramount said it expects the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition to be evaluated on its legal merits rather than what it characterized as underlying bias, concluding that it wanted “less rhetoric, more understanding.”
The response followed an Instagram Story from Mr. Ruffalo in which he shared an older video of Paramount board member and former Oracle CEO Safra Catz discussing what she called “really profoundly scary technologies” at Oracle. The clip concerned Oracle technology used to assist Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack and had been posted by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Mr. Ruffalo claimed that Oracle technology could eventually become intertwined with the enlarged media company and warned that it could someday be “used on you.” He also accused Oracle of powering what he described as an apartheid system and genocide involving Palestinians.
The actor separately attacked Mr. Ellison, calling him a “classic Oligarch” and accusing wealthy corporate leaders of “crushing workers and consolidating the wealth of the world for their own power and concentrated dominance.”
Mr. Ruffalo rejected Paramount’s characterization of his remarks, telling the New York Post that the suggestion he is antisemitic was “appalling and fundamentally dishonest.”
“Criticizing the actions of the Israeli prime minister, a military technology contract, or the executives who supply it is not the same as criticizing Jewish people,” he said.
Mr. Ruffalo added that his political views should not be interpreted as hostility toward Jewish people, saying Jewish friends, colleagues and loved ones have had a profound influence on his acting, activism and worldview. He maintained that the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal carries consequences “for real people, and for the entire country.”
The dispute comes as Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition faces antitrust lawsuits from 12 states and the Writers Guild of America. Paramount on Monday asked the federal judge overseeing the cases to require the challengers to post a $1.88 billion bond to cover losses the company says it could suffer if the litigation delays the transaction and Paramount ultimately prevails.
A federal antitrust trial is scheduled to begin March 2, 2027. Paramount has agreed to keep the transaction on hold through a post-trial ruling or until a June 2027 outside date, extending the timeline well beyond the original expectations for closing.
Under the purchase agreement, Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders begin accruing additional “ticking” consideration if the transaction remains unclosed after Sept. 30. The provision amounts to about $7 million per day, or roughly $650 million per quarter, but is payable to shareholders if the acquisition ultimately closes rather than functioning as a daily termination penalty.
A separate $7 billion termination fee could become payable by Paramount under specified circumstances if the transaction fails to close.
This article was constructed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and published by a member of The Washington Times' AI News Desk team. The contents of this report are based solely on The Washington Times' original reporting, wire services, and/or other sources cited within the report. For more information, please read our AI policy or contact Steve Fink, Director of Artificial Intelligence, at sfink@washingtontimes.com
The Washington Times AI Ethics Newsroom Committee can be reached at aispotlight@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.