<\/p>\n
Paramount Skydance has agreed to delay its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery to as late as next June as David Ellison\u2019s media company mounts its defense to the antitrust challenge brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and his coalition of 11 other state attorneys general.<\/p>\n
The major concession comes as Paramount was facing an Aug. 3 hearing to try to convince U.S. District Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn that its proposed $111-billion deal \u2014 which would reshape Hollywood with the combination of two historic studios \u2014 did not violate U.S. antitrust laws.<\/p>\n
In a stipulation filed Friday, Paramount agreed to hold off on closing its blockbuster purchase until after the states\u2019 antitrust case can be decided by the judge in a trial \u2014 or by June 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
The move comes after Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn issued a temporary restraining order earlier in the week \u2014 requested by Bonta and the others \u2014 which paused the deal until the judge could hold a preliminary injunction hearing to decide whether to impose a lengthy moratorium. <\/p>\n
Privately, Paramount officials were worried they might lose that round before Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn so, during negotiations with the states, Paramount stipulated that it would not close the deal on its preferred timetable.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday\u2019s agreement is a significant win because the result is exactly what we have sought from the outset: a direct path to a trial based on the evidence,\u201d a Paramount spokesperson said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the fastest and clearest way to prove that this transaction is good for competition, good for consumers, and good for creators, a conclusion dozens of competition authorities around the world have already reached,\u201d Paramount\u2019s spokesperson said. \u201cPlaintiffs\u2019 market definitions bear no relationship to the realities of today\u2019s marketplace and cannot withstand scrutiny. We look forward to proving our case at trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Paramount will have to pay Warner Bros. Discovery investors more than the $31 a share it previously promised. The company had been hoping to finalize the purchase by late September to avoid a higher payout.<\/p>\n
But so-called \u201cticking fees\u201d of $.25 a share per quarter begin Oct. 1. If Paramount can\u2019t close the deal by June 1, it would owe Warner Bros. Discovery a $7 billion breakup fee.<\/p>\n
Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn on Thursday extended the restraining order for another 14 days \u2014 until Aug. 17 \u2014 in recognition that more time was needed for the case to get rolling. <\/p>\n
With Friday\u2019s agreement, the Aug. 3 preliminary injunction hearing will be canceled as the two sides prepare for a trial.<\/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":" Paramount Skydance has agreed to delay its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery to as late as next June as David Ellison\u2019s media company mounts its defense to the antitrust challenge brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and his coalition of 11 other state attorneys general. The major concession comes as Paramount was facing an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2017682,"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-2516132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Paramount-denounces-boycott-of-Israeli-film-industry-as-Gaza-conflict.com2F272F7a2Ff09a3b394ffd8cc5496f057a.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516132","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=2516132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2516133,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2516132\/revisions\/2516133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2516132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2516132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2516132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}