David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance is hoping to close its megamerger with Warner Bros. Discovery within the next several months — but there are still a few roadblocks remaining.
One of those is a potential lawsuit from Democratic attorneys general, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta specifically having said his office is investigation the proposed Paramount-WBD deal for antitrust concerns.
Bonta, in a recent interview with MS NOW, said he and his team are engaged in a “straight-up antitrust analysis” of the proposed Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which is “our lane.” And he appeared to dismiss a report that the California AG was looking to require Paramount to divest CNN as a condition for otherwise letting the deal go through as “opining.”
Bonta was asked by MS NOW’s Jacob Soboroff in an interview Sunday about a report by Puck that said, “Rob Bonta wants Paramount to sell CNN” and that “the widespread belief among people close to Bonta is that a divestiture of the news network would be the best way for Democrats to feel not terrible about the Trump-friendly Paramount’s pending $110 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery.” The Puck report also said Bonta “knows he’ll have a tough time winning” an antitrust case seeking to halt the merger.
