UPDATE 3: Done. The merger closed on October 6, right on schedule, and the two companies are now one.
UPDATE 2: It has a name. David Ellison announced the combined company will be called Skydance.
UPDATE: Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have set the date: the merger is expected to close on October 6. That’s six days of the $7 million-a-day fee to WBD shareholders.
The Paramount Warner Bros. merger is happening.
A federal judge on Wednesday approved Paramount’s settlement with the twelve state attorneys general who sued to block the deal, the last thing standing between the $111 billion merger and closing.
“The Court finds the proposed consent decree represents a reasonable factual and legal resolution of the dispute,” wrote Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin, with consent decree being the legal name for the deal Paramount and the states signed on September 21.
David Ellison said last week it takes about two weeks to formally combine the companies. That puts the close into next week.
Paramount has a reason to hurry. Starting October 1, it owes WBD shareholders about $7 million a day until the deal closes.
Five Years Of Promises
The settlement holds Paramount to legally enforceable commitments for five years after closing: a set number of movies in theaters each year, an editorial oversight board for CNN and CBS, and negotiating separately with cable distributors for the Paramount and WBD channels.
Nobody is forced to sell anything, and Deadline notes the terms come with loopholes.
California’s Rob Bonta, who led the twelve states, has said the agreement “is not a blessing” and that he still doesn’t think the two studios should merge.
The judge gave opponents a week to file their objections, then answered them Wednesday: wanting the deal to go further, she wrote, does not “rise to the level of legal violations” that would let her reject it.
The lawsuit had a trial date set for March. Instead, the deal Paramount announced back in February, after WBD walked away from Netflix, is now days from real.
The New Company Is Already Moving
The approval caps a week where the combined company started taking shape before the ink dried.
On Tuesday, Cindy Holland exited Paramount, with HBO’s Casey Bloys expected to run all streaming. On Wednesday, Ellison named Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz Co-CEO.
The money is moving too. Per Deadline, Paramount is marketing a $44 billion bond sale to help pay for the deal, with WBD shareholders cashed out at $31 a share.
And everything parked on the other side of the closing now has a date attached, including the combined studio’s franchise plans and The Dark Knight Returns two-part event movie our insiders revealed.
The paperwork is done. Next week, it’s one company.
