A dozen states sue to block Paramount, Warner Bros. $110B merger

A 12-state coalition filed a federal lawsuit on Monday to block Paramount Skydance from buying Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., a purchase that’s slated to be the largest merger in Hollywood history. The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, took issue with the merger’s impact on competition in the entertainment industry and cited monopoly concerns.

The $110 billion sale would combine two of the five major Hollywood film distributors, along with two of the five major basic cable channel owners, according to a Monday release from Bonta’s office. States argued that the merger would illegally quash competition and inflict harm on movie theaters and basic cable distributors.

Paramount’s proposed acquisition would threaten viewers with higher prices and reduce the variety, quality, and amount of content distributed, according to Bonta’s office. Other filing states included Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.

What have federal regulators said about the merger? The Justice Department’s antitrust division launched an eight-month review of the merger and found the deal posed no harm to competition, according to a June release. Investigators received over 2 million documents and ultimately concluded that the transaction posed no competitive harm to streaming, linear TV, or studio film production, according to the statement.