<\/p>\n
The U.S. Justice Department cleared the way for Paramount Skydance\u2019s $111-billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 a major milestone that moves David Ellison closer to his goal.<\/p>\n
After a months-long review, Justice Department antitrust regulators on Friday concluded the combination would not violate federal anti-competition laws. Approval had been expected because President Trump \u2014 who has friendly ties with Ellison and his father, tech billionaire Larry Ellison \u2014 favors the deal.<\/p>\n
The government stopped short of asking Paramount to make concessions or divestitures.<\/p>\n
Antitrust regulators found that \u201cbased on the evidence received in its investigation … the transaction is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers,\u201d the Justice Department division said in a statement. <\/p>\n
They looked at whether the merger would give Paramount too much power in the streaming video on demand market; the linear television channel space and \u201cstudio development, production, or distribution of films for theatrical release\u201d but did not find potential antitrust violations, the Justice Department said.<\/p>\n
Ellison has promised to continue releasing 30 films a year with a combined Warner Bros.-Paramount studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are grateful for the Department of Justice\u2019s thorough review of this transaction, as well as the work of the other agencies that have completed their reviews and provided clearance to date,\u201d Paramount said in a statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis deal is pro-competitive, resulting in a stronger company better positioned to compete against dominant technology platforms in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology, and investment. We remain focused on completing the transaction as soon as possible and delivering its benefits to consumers, creators, and the entertainment industry as a whole,\u201d Paramount said.<\/p>\n
Paramount wants to finalize its purchase by September. <\/p>\n
With Friday\u2019s victory, Paramount is staying on that timetable, but regulators in Europe and Britain have opened their own regulatory investigations and are expected to make their own determinations in the coming months. <\/p>\n
Separately, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general have been scrutinizing the proposed merger, and are widely expected to file a lawsuit, perhaps as early as this month, to try to block it. <\/p>\n
Paramount applied for the Justice Department\u2019s approval in December \u2014 more than two months before it edged out Netflix in the Warner sweepstakes.<\/p>\n
Buying Warner Bros. would allow Paramount \u2014 Hollywood\u2019s smallest major company \u2014 to bulk up with such prestigious properties as HBO, celebrity.land, HGTV and Food Network. Those would be combined with properties Paramount already owns, including CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and MTV.<\/p>\n
The deal would put two historic film studios, and two prominent news organizations under the same roof. It would give Paramount four streaming services, including HBO Max, and dozens of cable channels.<\/p>\n
Justice Department approval could complicate efforts by Bonta and other state attorneys general to block the deal. Should Bonta or others sue, they would have to convince a judge that the nation\u2019s top antitrust regulators failed to make a proper finding. <\/p>\n
That may pose a high bar for the state officials, who are facing political pressure to stop the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cState AGs must block this merger,\u201d U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said in a statement Friday, adding that the Justice Department\u2018s approval was \u201cterrible news for every American who doesn\u2019t want Trump-aligned billionaires to control what they watch and how much they pay.\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":" The U.S. Justice Department cleared the way for Paramount Skydance\u2019s $111-billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 a major milestone that moves David Ellison closer to his goal. After a months-long review, Justice Department antitrust regulators on Friday concluded the combination would not violate federal anti-competition laws. Approval had been expected because President Trump \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2457106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":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-2457105","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\/06\/Paramounts-111-billion-Warner-Bros-acquisition-clears-key-hurdle.com2F562F692F70d06af64dc2a0166bf69a2b.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457105","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=2457105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2457107,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457105\/revisions\/2457107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2457106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}