In a massive blow to the Paramount WBD merger, the antitrust lawsuit has been delayed five months, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Beginning October 1st, Paramount will owe shareholders approximately 7 million dollars a day. The total amount paid by the time the trial concludes is estimated to reach $1.7 billion.
A Paramount spokesperson responded to the delay in a statement.“We respect the court’s decision and continue to believe a trial on the merits is the best and most direct way for us to prove what we’ve said from the start – this transaction is lawful, pro-competitive, and raises no antitrust concerns,” it read. “The lawsuit against us has no basis in fact, economics or antitrust law. We will continue to vigorously defend the transaction and remain committed to closing as soon as possible so its benefits for the creative community and consumers can be realized.” The statement continued per The Hollywood Reporter.
The trial date is somewhat of a compromise between the two parties, although the start date does lean in the plaintiff’s favor. Paramount requested a November start date whereas the coalition of states who brought the lawsuit asked for April. The judge elected for the trial to begin on March 2nd. The trial may encroach on a termination date in June 2027, when Warner Bros. Discovery has the option to terminate the deal and collect a $7 billion fee.
Paramount’s legal team includes antitrust attorney Beth Wilkinson. Among her accomplishments is the successful defense of the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Also on the Paramount team is Jeffrey Kessler and Paul Clement. The plaintiffs have brought on Richard Parker and James Weingarten from Milbank. Weingarten was on the opposite side of Wilkinson during the Microsoft trial.
Paramount faces lawsuits from multiple parties, including the states, the Writers Guild of America, and even a group of its own shareholders. CEO David Ellison assuaged concerns on an earnings call Wednesday, stating the deal was still “in place” and There’s nothing at risk, and so “we’re confident we’ll close the transaction, and we’re working towards that as fast as we possibly can,” per The Hollywood Reporter.
Ellison recently wrote a New York Times Op-Ed in which he wrote that he believed the opposition was due to Paramount’s acquisition of news organization CNN in a deal. “I believe this fight is not really about market share … I believe a plainer worry sits beneath the briefs and the news releases: the news. The issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner’s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions,” Ellison wrote. “Unfortunately, I can’t give anyone a view into my heart and mind, but I can share this: I have regularly voted for candidates of both parties; I hold some views that would be called conservative and others that would be called liberal, just like most Americans; and when it comes to our news operations, I do not aspire to lead these companies to bend their newsrooms to my views. I believe that news should be based on facts and truth,” he said per The Hollywood Reporter.
Whether or not Ellison’s comments about political opinions hold any merit is hotly debated. Paramount recently took over CBS News and placed the controversial Bari Weiss as Editor-In-Chief. Weiss’s tenure has been divisive, with the exit of several long-term journalists, including Scott Pelley, and the delay of a 60 Minutes story about the CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Without a doubt, trust in news organizations has been declining in recent years. According to Gallup News, confidence in mass media has hit an all-time low at 28 percent of people expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust. An often cited driver of this mistrust is the political bias of news outlets. Weiss has stated that she is vehemently opposed to “woke culture” and censorship. Weiss has become a prominent anti left figure since her exit from the New York Times in 2020, when she published a paper admonishing the company’s culture. If Weiss and Ellison are the bastions of truth they claim to be certainly depends on who you ask.
