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A federal judge has now granted Paramount's settlement agreement with 12 states that sued over the company's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, allowing the companies to soon close their USD 81 billion mega merger. In a Wednesday order, US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin ruled that the proposed consent decree was a "fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms" alleged by the states' lawsuit. Paramount previously called the antitrust challenge the last hurdle ahead of closing its Warner merger, and signalled that it aims to close its Warner acquisition as early as October. Shortly after Martinez-Olguin's ruling on Wednesday afternoon, the company announced that Ynon Kreiz - current chief executive at toy giant Mattel - will join Paramount on October 5 and serve as co-CEO alongside David Ellison of the combined company. A Paramount-Warner marriage will bring together two of Hollywood's last five legacy studios. HBO Max, a library full of titles .
Twelve states and Hollywood writers challenging Paramount's buyout of Warner Bros Discovery agreed to settle their lawsuits on Monday, effectively paving the way for the USD 81 billion mega merger to cross the finish line, with some new commitments from the company. The blockbuster deal will still vastly reshape Hollywood - bringing together two of the "big five" remaining studios, key TV networks like CBS and CNN and streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+, as well as decades-old libraries with titles ranging from "Harry Potter" to "Top Gun." But among terms of Monday's agreement announced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta - who led the states' case - Skydance-owned Paramount pledged to increase film production in the U.S., commit millions of dollars to a fund to support workers displaced by the merger and create new monitoring of the editorial independence of the company's news operations. The settlement still needs a final sign-off by a judge. Paramount CEO David Ellis
Paramount on Friday agreed to delay closing its USD 81 billion buyout of Warner Bros Discovery well into next year, as a judge continues to consider a challenge from 12 states seeking to block the deal altogether. In a court filing, Paramount said it wouldn't close the merger until either a court ruling is made on the merits of the states' lawsuit or June 1, 2027. The move arrives just days after US District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin granted a temporary restraining order to freeze the transaction for several weeks, ruling that the states had raised some "serious questions" and a strong case about the merger's potential to "substantially lessen competition." Paramount called Friday's agreement a "significant win because the result is exactly what we have sought from the outset: a direct path to a trial based on the evidence." The company, which was bought by Skydance just last year, added that this was the "fastest and clearest way" to prove its merger was good for competition an
Netflix is declining to raise its offer to buy Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming business, in a stunning move that effectively puts Paramount in a position to take over the fellow storied Hollywood giant. On Thursday, after Warner's board announced that Skydance-owned Paramount's offer was superior to the agreement it had previously struck with Netflix, the streaming giant said that at the price that would be required to buy Warner, a deal was "no longer financially attractive." Unlike Netflix's bid, Paramount wants all of Warner's operations, including networks like CNN and Discovery. That would put CNN under the same roof as Paramount's CBS and combine two of Hollywood's last five remaining studios. Warner Bros Discovery has determined that Paramount's latest takeover offer is superior to the streaming and studio agreement it struck with Netflix, marking a stark shift in momentum in the fight for the storied Hollywood giant. The owner of HBO Max, DC Studios and popular