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Paramount is continuing to press a dozen states led by California and the Writers Guild of America to bear the costs of the hold up caused by their lawsuits challenging the $111 billion megamerger.
The studio has asked for a $1.88 billion bond to cover losses if it wins the cases. In July, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín temporarily halted the deal and scheduled a trial for March, months past its target closing date of late September.
There will be major financial repercussions for the delay. Under the agreement, Warners shareholders are owed roughly $650 million per quarter or $6.9 million per day if the merger hasn’t closed by Oct. 1. The bond represents the maximum payout to investors, plus legal fees.
The states and WGA have pushed back on the demand, arguing that Paramount proposed the fee in a bid to win support from shareholders, who were weighing a rival bid from Netflix at the time. The studio “now wishes to offload that responsibility,” stated a filing from California Attorney General Rob Bonta last month.
