New Foe Comes Out Against Paramount-Warner Deal

Hollywood writers just jumped from the picket line to the courthouse. Deadline reports that the Writers Guild of America on Tuesday sued to stop Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing in its complaint filed in Northern California that the mega-deal would break antitrust law and squeeze writers' pay, jobs, and conditions. "With fewer competitors," the merged company would be able to undercut wages and cut output, the complaint notes. In short, the merger "threatens the economic and creative health of the American entertainment industry," the complaint states, per the AP.

The move comes a day after a dozen state attorneys general filed their own antitrust suit against the merger, an effort the WGA had already endorsed while quietly coordinating with state offices and federal lawmakers, per Deadline. Paramount Skydance pushed back, saying a combined company would be better positioned to invest in writers, not sideline them. The company pledged more development, more green-lighting of films and series, ongoing work with independent producers, and "more writers' rooms" overall. The WGA's decision to file a separate case from the states allows it to center labor-specific harm.