State Attorneys General Face Growing Opposition to Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Settlement
Critics, including several state attorneys general, are urging California Attorney General Rob Bonta to reject a proposed settlement on the $111 billion Paramount-Warner Bros. deal, citing concerns over media concentration and insufficient safeguards.
Opposition to a proposed settlement of the antitrust lawsuit against Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery intensified over the weekend. The settlement discussion includes a plan to create a bipartisan editorial board to oversee CNN, a property that Paramount chief executive David Ellison would control alongside CBS News.
State officials, including California Attorney General Rob Bonta, have been pressed to reject the deal, with lawmakers such as Rep. Jamie Raskin and Rep. Ro Khanna urging the attorneys general to “hang tough” and prevent Ellison’s companies from owning both CBS and CNN.
While Bonta and Ellison have reportedly made progress in negotiations, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong have expressed reservations, saying the proposed compromises do not adequately address concerns about the merged entity’s market power. Their dissent could hinder Bonta’s ability to secure the necessary approvals from the coalition of state attorneys general.
Paramount argues that combining HBO, CNN, CBS, TBS, Comedy Central and two major film studios would create a company capable of competing with technology firms such as Apple, Netflix, Google and Amazon. The company plans to ask U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín to require the states and the Writers Guild of America to post a $1.88 billion bond covering potential delay costs if Paramount ultimately prevails.
Ellison has indicated a desire to close the merger by Oct. 1, when a higher payout to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders would be required, and has warned that the company could relocate its Hollywood operations to Tennessee or Texas if the antitrust fight extends beyond that date. California officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, have publicly called for a settlement, while some local politicians continue to support Bonta’s stance.
In an opinion piece, antitrust and First Amendment scholars Fiona Scott Morton, Gene Kimmelman and Norm Eisen dismissed the relocation threat as lacking business justification, noting that Paramount’s corporate headquarters remain listed in New York. Demonstrations are planned outside Bonta’s Oakland office and later at Attorney General James’s New York office and the Paramount lot in Hollywood.