TL;DRParamount vows to fight a 12-state antitrust lawsuit blocking its $110 billion Warner Bros Discovery deal, saying it will go to the Supreme Court.
Paramount Skydance is still aiming to close its roughly $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery by the end of September despite a lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general seeking to block the deal on antitrust grounds. Jeffrey Kessler, Paramount’s lead trial counsel, told CNBC on Tuesday that the company is prepared to take the matter to the Supreme Court if it faces a prolonged blockade. The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, filed the suit in federal court on Monday and followed it with a motion for a temporary restraining order later that evening.
The lawsuit argues that combining two of Hollywood’s five major film distributors and two of its five major basic cable channel owners would substantially lessen competition across theatrical distribution, cable programming, and the broader entertainment industry. Bonta said in a statement that the merger would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for audiences. The deal had already received clearance from the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, which concluded in June that the transaction was unlikely to harm competition, making the state-level challenge a direct rebuke of the federal finding.
