The US Justice Department’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division said it has cleared Paramount Skydance Corp’s planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying it was unlikely to harm competition or consumers.
The DOJ said it spent eight months evaluating how the transaction would affect streaming video services, traditional television and the film industry, weighing input from across the entertainment industry.
“The extensive investigatory record reviewed by the division suggests that the impact of the transaction will be to increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, with benefits for American consumers and workers,” the DOJ wrote in a statement released on Friday.
Paramount CEO David Ellison’s father, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, has cultivated ties with President Donald Trump, and the company has hired former Trump officials.
Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi had said that politics would “absolutely not” drive the DOJ’s review of the transaction.
