As oil prices plunge, the kingdom's Public Investment Fund has made an offer for Warner Music Group, after nabbing a $500 million Live Nation stake to diversify.
in an SEC filing that it has taken a 5.7 percent stake in Live Nation, led by CEO Michael Rapino, via its sovereign wealth fund. The $500 million move marked the Public Investment Fund's first known buy-in of an American entertainment company since the October 2018 murder ofcolumnist Jamal Khashoggi — a crime attributed to Saudi government agents that abruptly ended Hollywood's love affair with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Although everyone from Disney to AMC Theatres has begun to offer debt in the COVID-19 fallout, some analysts say it would be better to take Saudi equity. "It would be a welcome investment from a debt perspective to see some of these companies that are more dramatically affected bring in some equity rather than just bringing [on] lots of debt, particularly some of the larger-cap media names like Disney and ViacomCBS," says Moody's analyst Neil Begley.
But as the pandemic wreaks havoc on the Hollywood economy, many companies would rather take a PR hit than lose their financial footing or go under altogether. Perhaps tellingly, there was scant blowback on Twitter over the Live Nation investment, which was made on the open market and didn’t require the touring giant’s consent. Judd Apatow was the only notable industry figure to express disdain on Twitter, but then he removed the tweet.
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