California Attorney General Rob Bonta is fighting Paramount Skydance’s claims that his multistate antitrust lawsuit against the entertainment company’s merger with Warner Bros. Discovery is about politics.
In writing an op-ed for Deadline on Monday, the Democratic attorney general is countering a New York Times guest essay penned by Paramount CEO David Ellison last week.
Ellison argues that the case is about the future ownership of CNN if the merger closes, not about market share as was presented in the lawsuit. Bonta insists that the suit he filed with 11 other state attorneys general intends to enforce federal antitrust law, and he accuses the two studios of trying to draw attention from the facts of the case by “spearheading a public relations campaign to spin” a false narrative.
“They would have you believe that this is purely politics,” Bonta wrote. “It’s not. If it was, we would have been thrown out of court the day we filed.
“Instead, the judge reviewed our case, saw the merits of our arguments, and issued a temporary restraining order to block the merger. If this was about politics, Paramount and Warner Bros would not have agreed to pause the merger until a judge makes a final decision or until next June, rather than go through preliminary injunction hearings that were likely to go the same way as the temporary restraining order — in our favor.”
The case is heading to trial for two weeks in March 2027 after Paramount agreed to delay the Warner Bros. merger until June 1, 2027. Initially, Paramount was aiming to close the deal by the end of next month.
The 12-state plaintiff coalition, led by California, contends that the proposed merger violates the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 by substantially reducing competition in film distribution and television licensing.
Bonta filed the lawsuit last month after the Justice Department approved the merger in June.
The California official believes Paramount and Warner Bros. will lose in court next year, which he says is why they are trying to influence the “court of public opinion” since the lawsuit was brought.
“They want to talk about anything but the facts of this case,” Bonta wrote. “To twist the narrative. To try to confuse, conflate, and convince you that this is about politics, the news, or the future of streaming, when they know perfectly well it is not. When our lawsuit makes it crystal clear that it is not. As disingenuous as it may be, they are welcome to do so.”
PARAMOUNT CEO DAVID ELLISON SAYS ANTITRUST LAWSUIT IS ABOUT CNN OWNERSHIP, NOT MARKET SHARE
His op-ed comes after Paramount reportedly pledged to sign three-year contracts with major theater chains that guarantee it will release 30 theatrical films per year if the company combines with Warner Bros. The chief executives of AMC Theatres and Regal Cinemas recently came out in support of the merger. Their decisions were likely influenced by Ellison’s commitment to theatrical films.
Bonta did not address Paramount’s reported promise in his guest column, but he has dismissed it as “self-serving” and “completely unenforceable” in terms of the broader antitrust case at play.