Advocacy Groups Urge Judge to Block $111 Billion Paramount-WBD Settlement
Updated
Updated · Ars Technica · Sep 25
Advocacy Groups Urge Judge to Block $111 Billion Paramount-WBD Settlement
3 articles · Updated · Ars Technica · Sep 25
Summary
Five media and free-speech groups asked US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín to reject a California-led settlement that would clear Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Their filing said the deal gives residents of the 12 suing states “virtually nothing,” leaving intact the loss of competition that states themselves argued would raise prices, reduce output, lower quality and lessen choice.
The challenge targets California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s reversal after he announced the settlement earlier this week, despite previously criticizing behavioral remedies such as Paramount’s pledge to release 30 movies a year as weak and hard to enforce.
Martínez-Olguín had ruled in July that the merger was likely to substantially reduce competition and violate antitrust law; she now must decide whether to approve the states’ settlement.
The League of United Latin American Citizens filed a similar objection, underscoring broader concern that the merger would eliminate independent decision-making in films and TV programming.