California Attorney General Rob Bonta has halted settlement discussions with Paramount, citing bad faith regarding the proposed $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
Paramount’s pending acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery has evoked a range of emotion in Hollywood, mainly fear among creatives at the planned merger of two more major studios. But now that uncertainty is tinged with panic after CEO David Ellison threatened to relocate his Los Angeles-based company to Tennessee, Texas or Georgia. Separately, the risks […]
Editors’ Note: On July 13, California, New York & 10 other states sued to stop Paramount Skydance’s planned $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. Last week a federal judge dealt the David Ellison-run Paramount a blow by setting the much anticipated antitrust action for a two-week trial in March 2027. Amidst recent ParaBros merger […]
Paramount CEO David Ellison told a group of the company’s top executives that he will start the process of exiting California on October 1 if the state’s Attorney General Rob Bonta will not negotiate to settle an antitrust suit around the planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Bonta has just responded: “In a span of […]
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said he’d consider structural remedies to resolve a lawsuit over the Paramount-WBD merger but dismissed “behavioral” remedies that are hard to enforce, like David Ellison’s pledge that the combined company will release 30 movies a year. “There’s ways where the issue could be resolved with potentially structural remedies, he said […]
Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee to become the next governor of California, recommended that state attorneys general and Paramount reach a settlement and avoid an antitrust trial over the proposed Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Weighing in for the first time on the lawsuit, Becerra said at a Politico conference on Tuesday, “I hope it settles […]
Two of Hollywood’s most powerful unions have a message for California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison: Work it out ASAP, whether in court or otherwise. The DGA and IATSE sent a joint letter to the pair on Wednesday to “raise concerns about the potential for a prolonged timetable for the […]
This week has been dominated by headlines about Paramount’s threat to leave California, by unions and other officials urging a settlement and by Capitol Hill Democrats warning of investigations. But on Thursday, attorneys completed the rather routine step of proposing key dates and deadlines in advance of an antitrust trial over the proposed merger of […]
The DGA and IATSE may want to play footsie with Paramount over the state attorneys general antitrust lawsuit and hopes for a settlement. However, as the WGA has joined the charge against David Ellison’s currently stalled $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros Discovery, a very strong arm of Hollywood labor has declared it’s time to […]
In case you didn’t already know, Paramount CEO David Ellison really wants to make sure this afternoon that everybody is clear those pesky state attorneys general and their antitrust lawsuit are ruining a really good $111 billion thing — and now even Mexico agrees with him. “Paramount and WBD could and would close today and […]