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NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Twelve states challenged Paramount\u2019s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, filing a lawsuit that argues the $81 billion mega merger would \u201cextinguish competition\u201d in Hollywood and threaten jobs across the industry.<\/p>\n
The office of California\u2019s attorney general, who is leading the case, said the states are asking Warner and Paramount to not close their merger \u201cuntil after the judicial process concludes\u201d \u2014 and if the companies do not agree, the coalition will then file a temporary restraining order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe unlawful merger of these two entertainment behemoths would lead to higher prices, lower quality, and less content for film and television, harming movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and ultimately, audiences on every sofa and movie theater seat in the U.S.,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The additional states joining the suit include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.<\/p>\n
Skydance-owned Paramount said Monday\u2019s lawsuit \u201cdistorts settled antitrust law\u201d and maintained its merger would create a \u201cstronger competitor against dominant streaming and technology platforms who have harmed the market for theatrical exhibition and jobs in the entertainment industry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company vowed to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d the transaction. Warner deferred to Paramount for comment.<\/p>\n
Where Paramount\u2019s takeover of Warner stands<\/strong><\/p>\n A Paramount-Warner combo would mean putting HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like \u201cHarry Potter\u201d and even CNN under the same roof with CBS, \u201cTop Gun\u201d and the Paramount+ streaming service.<\/p>\n The states\u2019 lawsuit could throw a wrench in those plans, at least for now. The antitrust case arrives at a pivotal time for the Paramount-Warner transaction \u2014 which, after months of what became a very public bidding war with Netflix, received shareholders\u2019 stamp of approval in April and then a blessing from the Trump administration just last month.<\/p>\n The U.S. Justice Department isn\u2019t challenging the deal \u2014 and instead released an unusually lengthy statement in support, maintaining a Paramount-Warner combo would \u201cincrease competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem, with benefits for American consumers and workers.\u201d<\/p>\n Paramount has touted additional regulatory clearances it says it\u2019s received in a handful of other countries, including China, Canada and Australia. But other reviews remain in progress, including in the European Union and the U.K. \u2014 which has separately suggested it may intervene.<\/p>\n Paramount and Warner previously said they hoped to close their deal sometime in the third quarter of this year, signaling recently an effort to complete process in the coming weeks. The clock is ticking. Paramount pledged to give shareholders some compensation if the acquisition doesn\u2019t close by Sept. 30 \u2014 in the form of a 25-cent per share \u201cticking fee\u201d for every quarter past that date. It\u2019s also agreed to a regulatory termination fee of $7 billion.<\/p>\n Including debt, Paramount\u2019s proposed purchase of Warner is valued at nearly $111 billion (or $31 per share) based on current outstanding shares.<\/p>\n Critics of the deal, and Paramount\u2019s response<\/strong><\/p>\n Warner and Paramount argue that merging will be good for growth in the industry and give consumers access to more content, particularly if HBO Max and Paramount+ libraries are combined. But critics have decried what further consolidation could mean in an industry already controlled by just a few major players.<\/p>\n Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced \u201cunequivocal opposition\u201d to the Paramount deal, arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers. Meanwhile, Paramount on Monday argued that delaying the merger \u201cwill only harm entertainment workers who have already suffered over recent years as technology has disrupted their livelihood and cost California tens of thousands of entertainment jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n Questions of political influence have also piled up. Democrats in particular have expressed skepticism about whether regulators working under President Donald Trump would scrutinize the deal as heavily.<\/p>\n The Justice Department maintained that politics would not play a role in the regulatory process \u2014 but Trump himself has publicly waded into Warner\u2019s future at times, despite backpedaling on what he once suggested his personal role would be. The Republican president also has a close relationship with the Ellison family, particularly Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who is putting billions of dollars on the table to back the bid for his son\u2019s company.<\/p>\n Many eyes are on CNN, a network that has long attracted ire from Trump and his allies. Paramount\u2019s CBS has already seen significant turmoil and shifts in editorial leadership since coming under Skydance ownership last \u2014 and if Warner merger goes through, the reach of that could grow. Several Trump administration officials have been far from shy from sharing their hopes for CNN under Paramount ownership, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth telling reporters in March that \u201cthe sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Twelve states challenged Paramount\u2019s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday, filing a lawsuit that argues the $81 billion mega merger would \u201cextinguish competition\u201d in Hollywood and threaten jobs across the industry. The office of California\u2019s attorney general, who is leading the case, said the states are asking Warner and Paramount … Continue reading 12 states challenge Paramount\u2019s takeover of Warner Bros, say merger would \u2018extinguish competition\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1523931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1450],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1523930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-business-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-15 15:09:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1523930"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1523932,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523930\/revisions\/1523932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1523931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1523930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1523930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1523930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}