There’s a Deal, Now It’s All About the Details. Paramount, 12 States to Settle Warner Bros. Fight

The agreement is expected to be announced later Monday.

Paramount settles antitrust suit with states over Warner Bros. Discovery Mega Deal giving David Ellison path to Close. After days of marathon negotiations, Paramount Skydance and the state attorneys general have settled the blockbuster antitrust lawsuit over the $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition, according to multiple reports. The agreement is expected to be announced later Monday (on Yom Kippur, no less). But it also clears Paramount to close the deal, which had a so-called $7 million-per-day ticking fee set to begin Oct. 1. The settlement allows the studio to avoid paying those costs assuming it can close in the next 10 days or so. The agreement comes after months of what has been a bitter and public back and forth, with threats by Paramount to leave the state of California (Texas and Tennessee both courted the company), accusations of antisemitism levied at some critics of the deal and a political undercurrent running just beneath the surface of the whole thing, given the Ellison family’s relationship to President Donald Trump, Rob Bonta’s own political ambitions and the hyper-politicized nature of dealmaking today.

The state attorneys general, led by California’s Bonta had sued to block the deal, alleging that the merger would give the combined Paramount-Warners too much control over basic cable TV and the theatrical film business. The Writers Guild