Logo text
Paramount won’t be able to close its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery until Aug. 18 at the earliest, with the court extending the temporary restraining order another 14 days.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued the extension to allow lawyers for the studio and the states looking to block the deal to come to an agreement on the schedule and format for legal proceedings on a preliminary injunction, which would freeze the transaction until the case is decided if granted.
The states alleged that the acquisition will substantially throttle competition in wide-release and top-grossing theatrical distribution and cable licensing in violation of antitrust laws. Separately, the Writers Guild of America filed a lawsuit claiming that the merger will result in lower compensation and worse deal terms.
The court on Monday granted the states’ bid to pause the deal. Legal jockeying followed, with Paramount urging the court to hold a three-day evidentiary hearing next month. That would allow it to “address critical factual issues involving market definition, real-world competitive dynamics, barriers to expansion, and incentives,” wrote Jeffrey Kessler, a lawyer for the studio, in a court filing. Paramount intends to put on expert witnesses and cross-examine the states’ experts to undermine arguments that the merger will suppress the markets at issue in the case. It has maintained that the states’ understanding and calculation of the markets are faulty.
