Oregon Asks Court To Block Paramount Skydance’s Merger With Warner Bros. Discovery

Paramount Skydance’s mega deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, WBD, may be put on hold as Oregon’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, says he is asking a court to temporarily block the merger.Earlier this year, WBD accepted Paramount Skydance’s roughly $111 billion acquisition deal, which would put two storied Hollywood studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. Pictures — as well as cable networks such as CBS, MTV, and CNN, and streaming platforms like HBO Max and Paramount+ under one roof. The deal has been intensely scrutinized by Democrats, who raised concerns that the consolidation will lead to higher prices for consumers. Democrats have also accused Paramount’s CEO, David Ellison, of trying to alter the editorial stance of CBS News — and CNN, once the deal goes through — to placate the Trump Administration. On Tuesday evening, Mr. Rayfield said he is seeking a court order to block the deal for 60 days to force Paramount to turn over documents related to its lobbying efforts. “We’re not going to let Paramount Skydance play hide the ball so they can rush through their massive merger,” Mr. Rayfield said. “Oregonians have a real stake in this deal — in our film industry, in our economy, in the choices they’ll have as consumers. Paramount had every opportunity to hand over records and answer a few basic questions. Instead, it is trying to run out the clock and evade scrutiny.”The Oregon Department of Justice said in a statement that Paramount Skydance has delayed sending over the requested documents and “ultimately sent objections on the day its documents were due.”In a statement, a Paramount spokesman said, “The information the Oregon Department of Justice is seeking has nothing to do with whether this transaction complies with Oregon’s antitrust laws and is not a legitimate basis to delay a plainly lawful, pro-competitive transaction.”“We have provided the attorney general’s office with all relevant documents it requested for the merger,” the spokesman added. Paramount noted that “authorities around the world … have carefully reviewed this transaction, clearing it or concluding that it does not violate any competition law.”Last month, the U.S. Justice Department approved the deal, finding that it was “not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers.” Regulators in Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, Serbia, Kuwait, South Africa, China, Spain, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Czechia, Italy, France, and Romania have also approved the deal. Paramount is awaiting final approval from the European Commission, but said last week that it submitted proposed concessions to address concerns of regulators. Besides concerns that the deal may harm competition, Democrats and liberal journalists are also fretting that Mr. Ellison will make changes at CNN. Last year, Skydance acquired CBS News’s parent company, Paramount Global, and installed a pro-Israel journalist, Bari Weiss, as the editor in chief of the Tiffany Network.Since taking over, Ms. Weiss has sought to implement Mr. Ellison’s vision of having the network produce unbiased journalism. Conservatives have long accused the network of a left-wing bias, an assessment that staffers at the network have disagreed with. Her most dramatic shakeup came earlier this year when CBS fired three “60 Minutes” correspondents, Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, and Cecilia Vega, and other staffers at the newsmagazine program. The fired correspondents accused network executives of trying to inject political bias into the stories. However, CBS News pushed back on that allegation in a statement, saying that the “only ‘interference’ is the normal back and forth between editor and correspondent that happens in every newsroom.”Staffers at CNN are reportedly nervous that once the WBD deal goes through, the cable network will see major changes aimed at changing its editorial voice. Paramount said last month that it made no promises to the Trump Administration that it would make changes at CNN in exchange for the government approving the deal. Mr. Ellison told CNBC earlier this year that CNN will maintain its independence.While the Paramount-WBD deal has been approved by multiple governments, there could be another attempt to block the merger. California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, is working to cobble together a coalition of states to challenge the deal.

Oregon Asks Court To Block Paramount Skydance’s Merger With Warner Bros. Discovery

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