Paramount Skydance on Tuesday reiterated its demand in a court filing that 12 states and the WGA — whose antitrust lawsuits seek to block its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — post $1.88 billion in bond as security to cover for the losses Paramount would incur if the deal doesn’t close until after the trial concludes next spring.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, who is hearing the cases, has set a Sept. 24 hearing date in considering Paramount’s bond request.
Paramount filed its request for the states and the WGA to pony up the $1.88 billion bond on Aug. 17. In an Aug. 31 filing opposing the bond motion, the states — led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta — argued that Paramount’s potential financial losses are of its own making.
In their opposition reply, the states said that “Paramount now wishes to offload its responsibility” for agreeing to pay WBD shareholders a “ticking fee” of $7 million per day starting Oct. 1 until the deal closes. “But whatever regret Paramount may feel for its commitments to Warner Bros., to Plaintiff States, to the WGA, and to the Court, it cannot show that the Court acted ‘improvidently’ in signing the joint stipulation. Nor can Paramount show why the public or a nonprofit labor union should underwrite its acquisition of Warner Bros.,” the state AGs said.
