Paramount Skydance appears to have settled two antitrust lawsuits, one filed by 12 states and the other by the Writers Guild of America, over its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday.
The landmark settlement is expected to be announced shortly after Paramount representatives met with California Attorney General Rob Bonta and others over the weekend to resolve the litigation.
The settlement talks happened weeks before the court-ordered settlement conference, which was set to take place from Oct. 14-15. The early deal cuts the legal challenges short, way in advance of the scheduled March 2027 trial.
It also comes days before Oct. 1, when Paramount was supposed to start racking up a $7 million “ticking fee” every day the $111 billion transaction has not been closed. That was also the earliest date on which Paramount CEO David Ellison would have announced his company’s floated departure from California. The company was reportedly looking to move to Texas, Tennessee, or Georgia if no settlement had been reached.
The terms have not been disclosed yet, but it appears Paramount has made several concessions to clear its pending merger with Warner Bros.
Among the reported terms are a $30 million penalty if Paramount falls short of its commitment to release 30 theatrical movies per year, a $1.5 billion investment in production spending in California, and independent editorial boards for CNN and CBS News. Both news outlets are set to fall under the combined Paramount-Warner Bros. entity.
The deal has come as a shock to Democratic lawmakers and left-wing activists opposed to the merger, chief among them being actor Mark Ruffalo.
“Gavin Newsom hands huge win to Trump and his billionaire cronies,” he said on X in response to a Bloomberg report on the settlement.
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Ruffalo, along with Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and others, urged Bonta and the 11 other Democratic state attorneys general to remain strong in their demands of Paramount. In light of the latest news, they will surely express their displeasure that Bonta has caved.
Paramount is now prepared to pair its film and television studios with those of Warner Bros. and combine their respective streaming services, Paramount+ and HBO Max. A Wall Street Journal report indicates Paramount will not have to sell its cable networks in order to close the merger.