UPDATE 10: Ellison looked back on the fight at Skydance’s first town hall: “At times, it was downright ugly.”
UPDATE 9: Early October it is. The merger is complete, and Warner Bros. Discovery stock has stopped trading.
UPDATE 8: The name is Skydance, with Paramount and Warner Bros. staying on as the studio brands.
UPDATE 7: The judge has approved the settlement. Nothing is left in the way, and the merger is set to close as soon as next week.
UPDATE 6: Three days after the settlement, David Ellison was at Trump’s state dinner for Xi Jinping, with Elon Musk at the head table.
UPDATE 5: South Park just made the case Paramount Warner Bros. won’t be Trump TV.
UPDATE 4: Warner Bros. staffers were told the deal should close in about 10 days, per Deadline, and they’re blaming Supergirl as the merger “feels like a scramble”.
UPDATE 3: She-Hulk star Tatiana Maslany has come out against the merger: “Totally against it. No question.”
UPDATE 2: Per Semafor, Paramount execs have discussed asking Elon Musk to buy in as an equity investor.
UPDATE: Our Paramount insiders on the aftermath: the mood inside Warner Bros. is “panic,” with cuts coming after a “kumbaya” phase — and the 30-movie pledge can be kept with re-releases.
The lawsuit standing between Paramount and Warner Bros. is over.
Paramount Skydance settled Monday with California and the 11 other states suing to block the $111 billion merger, with Attorney General Rob Bonta announcing the agreement at a press conference in Los Angeles.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav told staff in a memo that while the timing isn’t fixed yet, the merger is expected to close “no later than early October.”
The Writers Guild settled its parallel lawsuit the same day. Once the judge approves the settlement, nothing is left in the way.
What California Got
The states sued in July, arguing the merger would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood.
They settled for a set of commitments instead: the combined company must release at least 30 movies a year for its first two years, then 32 a year for the next three, or pay a penalty. Reuters puts that penalty at $30 million per missing film.
That number should sound familiar. CBN’s Paramount insiders said it last week: “they promised 30 movies a year (40 if you ask Cruise).”
The states just made the promise legally binding.
Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures will also keep running as separate studios for now, and the company will spend $300 million more a year making movies in the U.S. — Bonta’s answer to the argument that the merger costs Hollywood jobs.
CNN and CBS get independent editorial boards to keep the new owners out of the newsrooms. And Paramount gives up nothing it wanted to keep, no forced sale of CNN, no franchises on the block.
“The settlement is not a vote of support for this merger,” Bonta said, adding he still doesn’t think the two companies should combine.
David Ellison thanked the states and Governor Newsom, saying the goal is a stronger Hollywood with more choice and more competition.
The Ellison Era Starts In October
The timing is no accident. Paramount told the court it was ready to close by September 30; after that, a $7 million-a-day fee starts ticking for WBD shareholders for every day the deal stays open.
The two sides had a two-day settlement conference on the calendar for late October. They won’t need it.
Wall Street got the message, with WBD shares jumping more than 10% Monday.
The same day, Paramount moved the deadline on its offers for $15 billion of Warner Bros.’ bonds to October 2, the deal’s paperwork now carries the closing window’s date.
For nearly a year, CBN’s Paramount insiders have answered every DC question the same way: there is a plan — big swings, big revivals — but nothing gets decided until the merger is done.
That answer is now down to weeks.
