\n
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta vowed to drill into Paramount Skydance\u2019s proposed takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.<\/p>\n
(Paul Kuroda \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
Paramount filed for Justice Department approval in December. <\/p>\n
The maneuver started the regulatory review clock. And last month a key deadline for the Justice Department to raise concerns about Paramount\u2019s proposed acquisition of Warner passed without comment from Washington. <\/p>\n
Paramount has said it could finalize its deal by the end of September. <\/p>\n
The architect of Paramount\u2019s strategy, Chief Legal Officer Makan Delrahim, delivered his own keynote address, saying the Ellison family\u2019s acquisition of Warner Bros. would not reduce competition and instead would be \u201ca huge win for the creative community.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cParamount\u2019s transaction with Warner is an opportunity to expand output, to grow the number of movies, shows and other content we are offering to the consumer,\u201d Delrahim said, adding that will result in \u201cmore job opportunities,\u201d including in Southern California, which is reeling from a production flight to other states and countries.<\/p>\n
Delrahim conceded that Paramount was driven to buy Warner Bros. \u2014 it prevailed after Netflix bowed out \u2014 because Paramount is not big enough to compete in an industry dominated by technology giants. <\/p>\n
He criticized the proposed Netflix deal, saying he doubted it would have passed regulatory muster due to Netflix\u2019s strength in the streaming market.<\/p>\n
Paramount still needs to win the support of Warner shareholders, and also gain regulatory approvals from the Justice Department, state attorney generals and overseas governments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis deal is a big win for Los Angeles, for California and for all communities that embrace filmmaking,\u201d Delrahim said. <\/p>\n
Tech mogul Larry Ellison has personally guaranteed the $45.7 billion in equity needed for the transaction. The company would have to take on more than $60 billion in debt \u2014 raising concerns among Hollywood workers about large-scale cost cuts and layoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cParamount is investing $110 billion to take out a rival,\u201d said attorney Ethan E. Litwin, a former lawyer for TV networks, who also spoke at the conference. \u201cWhen you take out a major rival in a highly concentrated industry … you are taking out competitors for projects. \u201c <\/p>\n
Bonta declined to say whether he would try to stop the Paramount-Warner merger. <\/p>\n
Progressive State Leaders Committee, an affiliate of the Democratic Attorneys General Assn., in December hired Rohit Chopra, a former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and former commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, as a senior advisor. He will help coordinate efforts as the group, including Bonta, wages antitrust enforcement battles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government is just not enforcing the law,\u201d Chopra said during Thursday\u2019s conference. \u201cOur states are really the last line of defense.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta called out the federal government for largely vacating its role as antitrust regulator, saying it\u2019s now up to California and other states to look out for consumers\u2019 interests. Bonta, the state\u2019s top law enforcement officer, spoke Thursday at a Capitol Forum conference in Beverly Hills on antitrust issues and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2325559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2325558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/California-attorney-general-vows-to-scrutinize-ParamountWarner-deal.com2Fab2F1b2Ff5bfbc104a1f9d849669095c.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2325558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2325560,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2325558\/revisions\/2325560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2325559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2325558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2325558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2325558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}