One of the largest media mergers in history has been given the green light after California and 11 other states settled lawsuits Monday. For most of the year, Paramount Skydance has tried to purchase Warner Bros Discovery for a reported $110 billion, but those efforts were stalled over the summer.
Paramount and the states agreed to certain concessions to complete the deal, California’s attorney general Rob Bonta said at a news conference. Bonta led the coalition of states, plus a Hollywood writers union, that sued in July to stop the merger.
“This settlement is not a vote of support for this merger. It is not a blessing of the broader merger,” Bonta said Monday. “Broadly speaking, we believe further consolidation of markets that are central to American economic life doesn’t serve the American economy.”
The Block the Merger Coalition released a statement saying “This is a bad deal for the future of film, entertainment, independent journalism and a strong democracy in this country. We are disappointed and angry that the interests of average Americans have been trampled to benefit oligarch billionaires.”
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“A completion of the blockbuster deal would create one of the largest entertainment companies in the world,” the New York Times reported. “It would pair Paramount’s movie studio with Warner Bros., which has made films like ‘Superman,’ ‘A Minecraft Movie’ and ‘Sinners.’ The combined company would also own two major streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max, and control both CNN and CBS News.”
Additionally, CNN reported, it will be “financed with the help of sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi that will indirectly own just under a 50-percent equity stake in the merged Paramount–WBD.”
The clear winner in the deal is David Ellison, Paramount’s CEO and son of billionaire Larry Ellison, co-founder of the tech company Oracle. Both Ellisons are allies of President Donald Trump, whose Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved Paramount’s petition to allow 49.5% of its equity to be held by foreign entities. There is normally a 25-percent cap on foreign broadcast ownership.
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