That’s All? Team Paramount Nabs Warner Bros. With Only Minor Concessions to States

The $111 billion megadeal can proceed with some "guardrails" on domestic film production and keeping studio lots in Los Angeles — but not any divestitures of assets like cable channels. Paramount is able to close its merger with Warner Bros. without divesting assets but with guardrails in place after a lawsuit from states. The $111 billion megadeal can proceed with some "guardrails" on domestic film production and keeping studio lots in Los Angeles — but not any divestitures of assets unless it fails at commitments. After all of that sound and fury, that’s it? “I don’t think these two companies should merge,” said California attorney general Rob Bonta in unveiling a “significant” settlement with David Ellison to allow the mogul to do just that with Paramount and Warner Bros.

Discovery. Paramount’s C-suite must have been popping bottles of champagne as the press office engines of the major studio and 12 state attorney generals typed up the settlement term boilerplate language of what ended up being a stern finger-wave to Ellison’s team. When Bonta held his presser on Monday he made a point to note multiple times that he personally was not in favor of the merger while rattling off that Paramount would invest $1.5 billion in domestic production over five years, Paramount and Warner Bros. need to keep their studio