For a merger worth $11 billion, the last thing standing in the way wasn't money or federal regulators—it was the antitrust lawsuit filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta on behalf of 12 states. That roadblock has now been cleared.
According to CNN, Bonta held a press conference in Los Angeles today announcing that Paramount has reached a settlement with the 12 states over the antitrust lawsuit that sought to block its acquisition of Warner Bros. The deal is expected to close in early October. That means Paramount CEO David Ellison is about to gain control of major IP portfolios including the DC Universe and the Harry Potter franchise.
The settlement wasn't just a handshake deal. CNN reports that Paramount agreed to establish an independent editorial oversight committee to monitor the newsroom operations at CBS News and CNN, while also committing to releasing 30 theatrical films per year going forward. Both commitments are, in a sense, a response to concerns about news independence and content output in the wake of media consolidation.
The path to settlement had its share of drama. The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday that Paramount was already deep in negotiations with Bonta at that point. Politico reported that Paramount had at one point considered relocating out of California if talks fell through—a threat that reportedly prompted California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to step in and pressure Bonta to resolve the lawsuit quickly. In other words, keeping a major media company's tax revenue and jobs in-state turned out to be more persuasive than the lawsuit itself.
The US Department of Justice and EU regulators had already approved the merger, making the settlement with these 12 California-led states essentially the last domino to fall against opposition. What's being called the biggest media merger of the year now has only the closing process left to complete.
