According to Deadline, Paramount has continued trying to get state AGs to back off their antitrust lawsuit over the $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount recently filed a motion for a nearly $2 billion bond to cover the 7 million-a-day ticking fee the company will owe to shareholders starting October first.
“Ticking fees like the one Paramount faces are extraordinarily rare, in part because they are extraordinarily expensive,” Paramount said in a recent statement. “It would be incredibly risky to add such fees solely to deter private litigation; if the merging parties ultimately lose the antitrust litigation, the payor of the ticking fee would be left with an enormous bill and no merger,” the statement continued per Deadline.
“And there is no contention that this is such a case. Here, Paramount added the ticking fee in a highly competitive bidding war with Netflix, confident that its transaction is legal under established U.S. and foreign antitrust laws and would clear the relevant regulatory hurdles well before those fees started accruing,” read the statement per Deadline.
Paramount said the Trump-appointed Department of Justice has approved the merger. Additionally, they said over 60 jurisdictions have given it the go-ahead.
“Paramount provided unrebutted evidence that, but for the Order, it may suffer $1.88 billion in damages. Critically, the states never dispute that evidence or otherwise contest that Paramount will suffer financial injury as a result of the Order, both from the ticking fee and the incremental financing costs—a financial harm that the states outright ignore. Nor do they deny that Paramount would close this transaction by September 30, 2026, but-for the stipulated injunction. For purposes of this motion, then, the states have conceded that Paramount provided evidence to establish $1.88 billion in potential damages,” Paramount has continued about possible financial harm that neither the states nor the WGA dispute according to Deadline.
Paramount previously agreed to a stipulation that the deal would not close until June 1st or the end of legal proceedings. Several prominent California government and Hollywood figures have chimed in on the deal. Current governor Gavin Newsome, and incumbent governor Xavier Becara have called for a compromise. Two of the world’s highest-paid actors and directors, Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan, have also made similar statements.
In another statement, Paramount spoke on the financial responsibility of the state coalition: “if plaintiffs insist that this transaction is paused during the pendency of their lawsuit, they must accept the financial consequences if their challenge ultimately fails. Paramount agreed to delay closing to facilitate a prompt resolution of the case, while expressly preserving its legal rights and we continue to honor that agreement. We are not asking the district court to lift the no-close order, but to require enforcement of the bond that protects our financial interests while the litigation remains pending,” per Deadline.
The states responded by stating, “We believe Paramount’s motion has no merit and look forward to presenting our case in court at the September 24th hearing,” according to Deadline.
