A federal judge has paused Paramount Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery in response to a lawsuit last week from a dozen state attorneys general looking to block the deal on antitrust grounds. Why it matters: The delay represents the most significant legal challenge related to the merger globally to-date. - While some foreign regulators, including the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority, are still reviewing the deal, none have issued an order that independently bars Paramount and WBD from closing. Zoom in: On Monday, California District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a 14-day restraining order that prevents Paramount and WBD from closing their deal. - The judge argued it was in the public's best interest to issue…
Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa sent a letter to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta on Friday expressing “concern” over Bonta’s office reportedly preparing to sue to block the Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery merger. In a copy of the letter posted Saturday to X, Issa claimed that “for at least a decade, film and television production has fled the state once synonymous with the motion picture, television, and digital industries - repeatedly citing California’s anticompetitive business environment, burdensome regulatory rules, and excessive taxes, fees and costs.” “The result has been the loss of tens of thousands of California jobs and the wholesale relocation of studios,…Open
State attorneys general from a dozen states, including California, New York and Washington, filed a lawsuit to block Paramount Skydance's $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. Why it matters: The lawsuit could derail or delay the closing of the deal, which could cost Paramount hundreds of millions of dollars. - The coalition of states said they asked the two companies not to close their merger until after the judicial process concludes, adding it will file a temporary restraining order. - The coalition is composed of California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington. Zoom in: The states argue the deal is anticompetitive on three grounds: -…
The state of California filed a lawsuit Monday to block the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The day before, a news report alleged CEO David Ellison was considering leaving California should state regulators attempt to halt the $110 billion deal. NewsNation's Nancy Loo reports. #Paramount #California #WarnerBros
California is among the states suing to block Paramount from buying Warner Bros. Discovery in a Hollywood mega-merger that would unite some of the nation's largest movie studios and TV newsrooms.
State of the Union: Bari Weiss, the editor-in-chief of CBS News, will likely oversee editorial decisions at CNN as well, reports say. The post DOJ Approves Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger appeared first on The American Conservative .
The Department of Justice said Friday that it had signed off on Paramount’s $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. The merger, expected to be completed by September, will join Paramount+ and CBS with HBO Max and CNN, under the leadership of Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison. The deal will create the largest theatrical distributor in the United States. Anonymous sources familiar with the deal told POLITICO that the DOJ concluded the deal wouldn’t harm market competition. Unlike past mergers such as Comcast’s 2011 takeover of NBCUniversal, this one comes with no reported strings attached, as the government did not impose any divestitures, behavioral…Open
