Trump Administration Approves Paramount’s $111 Billion Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery Merger

The Trump administration approved Paramount’s $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division saying it saw no evidence the media megamerger would harm consumers and writing that the deal would, “increase competition across the media and entertainment ecosystem.”

“Atlanta is home to one of the most vibrant media industries in the U”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Deadline reported that the Justice Department approved the WBD merger late last week “without any concessions,” after a June 12 sign-off, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a tweet that “the merger of Warner Bros and Paramount is not a done deal and remains under investigation by my office.”

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Deadline also said nearly a dozen state attorneys general are poised to launch a lawsuit in the next few weeks to derail the ParaBros deal or take a bite out of it, and it named Winston & Strawn litigator Jeffrey Kessler as retained counsel for the Ellisons.

Democracy Now! said the Warner Bros. merger, if completed, would bring an even larger slice of the industry’s market share into Ellison control, and it described Paramount’s biggest shareholder as billionaire Larry Ellison and Paramount’s CEO as David Ellison.

The Atlantic framed the merger’s stakes as uncertain consequences for Hollywood, quoting film historian Jonathan Kuntz saying, “Merger or no merger,” Hollywood is still in trouble.

Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press and Free Press Action, told Democracy Now! that “This has been one of the most shallow and corrupt merger review processes we’ve ever seen,” arguing the Justice Department “didn’t look for one.”

Aaron warned that the deal would place “two of the largest U.S. broadcast news networks — CBS News and CNN — under the control of a single company,” and he said the company “has shown it is willing to warp and manipulate news coverage to please the president.”

Deadline

Deadline, by contrast, quoted a person close to power players in Sacramento saying, “They may think they’re home free, but that’s wishful thinking and not political reality,” and it described Bonta’s team as “taking a very close look and intend to be vigorous in our review of the proposed Paramount and Warner Bros merger.”

Deadline also quoted AG Bonta’s spokesperson saying, “Our office will take necessary action if we find that the transaction is unlawful under antitrust law,” and it reported that Bonta’s office retained Jeffrey Kessler to argue the states’ case.

In The Atlantic, Jonathan Kuntz described the broader context of consolidation and antitrust as a long-running relationship between Hollywood and the federal government, saying, “The relationship between the big companies of Hollywood and the federal government… is an ongoing thing that they’ve been working at for 110 years now.”

Deadline said the merger faces a regulatory timetable in the UK, and it warned that if the merger “isn’t locked in by September 30,” a “ticking fee” would require Paramount to pay “hundreds of millions” to WBD shareholders every subsequent month.

“The Trump administration has approved media conglomerate Paramount’s $111 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros”

Democracy Now!

Deadline reported that the deal is “weighed down by debt and foreign interest concerns,” and it described Gov. Gavin Newsom as providing a “newly flush antitrust-fighting war chest” for Bonta’s review.

Democracy Now! said the merger would consolidate “two major movie studios, two top streaming services, and news outlets CNN and CBS News, as well as HBO — all under the control of the Ellison family,” and it linked the Ellisons’ control to changes at CBS News.

The Atlantic added that the possible consequences of the merger remain “just as murky,” with Kuntz saying the merger could hasten “the death of the broader industry’s largest studios” or keep studios alive “on a smaller scale.”

In a different local framing, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution argued that Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery threatens to reverse Atlanta’s fortunes, urging Georgia’s attorney general Chris Carr to join an impending lawsuit from California and New York to block the merger and protect consumer interests.