Judge Gives Opponents of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Final Shot To Stop the Deal

Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery has hit a speed bump as a federal judge delayed signing off a settlement agreement with California to give groups opposed to the merger a chance to make their case. Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery appeared to be coming to fruition earlier this week when a dozen states announced a settlement agreement to resolve an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the transaction. Paramount faces a September 30 deadline to finalize the deal; if it does not close by then, Paramount will be required to pay $7 million for every day the deal is delayed. On Thursday, however, the federal judge overseeing the case, Araceli Martinez-Olguin, granted a request by a group opposed to the merger, Block the Merger, to file amicus briefs in opposition to the deal. That brief was filed Thursday evening.The merger would combine two storied Hollywood studios and put roughly two dozen linear TV networks and two major streaming services — Paramount+ and HBO Max — under the same roof. It would notably place CBS News and CNN under the same parent company. In July, Judge Martinez-Olguin placed the deal on hold while the lawsuit brought by California and 11 other Democratic-led states plays out. The plaintiffs charged that the merger of Paramount and WBD would limit competition in Hollywood and lead to higher prices for consumers. Democrats and liberal activists also expressed concern about Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, and his vision for CNN: Mr. Ellison, the son of Oracle co-founder, Larry Ellison, has been seen as aligned with President Trump. After Paramount turned up the pressure to end the lawsuit by floating the idea of leaving California, the two sides reached a settlement agreement. California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, told reporters on Monday that the agreement is an “in between deal.”Mr. Bonta said that as part of the agreement, the states won a commitment from Paramount to increase its production of movies produced in America, and to release 30 movies a year in the first two years after the merger goes through and 32 a year for the following three years. The deal also requires Paramount establish a News Editorial Independence Board to protect the editorial independence of CNN and CBS News. Some critics of the Paramount-WBD merger remain unsatisfied, saying the agreement contains empty promises. The attorney general of Connecticut, William Tong, said in a statement that the Constitution State had been pushing to require Paramount to sell off CBS and CNN in order to resolve the lawsuit and that he was “deeply disappointed” that that was not part of the deal. In a press release, Block the Merger called the settlement agreement “weak” and said that concerns about the merger had been “swept aside in favor of a backroom settlement that leaves workers, journalists, and consumers in the lurch.”“As for the so-called remedies the settlement offers, they do nothing to protect fair competition. The brief questions the constitutionality of the proposed Paramount-appointed CNN and CBS ‘independence board,’ which is categorically not independent,” the group said. Block the Merger said that it is asking Judge Martinez-Olguin to block the settlement agreement since she cannot re-write the deal. Paramount did not respond to The New York Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Judge Gives Opponents of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Final Shot To Stop the Deal

Judge Gives Opponents of Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Final Shot To Stop the Deal

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