Judge Clears the Way for Massive Hollywood Merger

A long-anticipated court decision just cleared the runway for one of Hollywood's biggest tie-ups. A federal judge on Thursday approved a settlement between Paramount and a coalition of state attorneys general, lifting the final legal barrier to Paramount's $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, Deadline reports. The consent decree resolves the states' antitrust lawsuit without forcing asset sales, despite criticism from advocacy groups that the deal will worsen consolidation in media. The settlement requires the combined company to release at least 30 films in US cinemas for five years, Reuters reports. A board of journalists will be established to oversee standards at CNN and CBS News.

US District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín called the settlement a "compromise that may leave some dissatisfaction for both sides and the public but a compromise that saves the risk, time, and expense of litigating through trial." California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the case, said the deal addresses competition concerns in cable programming and big-budget films, while reiterating that he still opposes the merger on principle.

• The Block the Merger coalition spoke out against the approval. "In years to come, we'll be able to point to this failure to put consumers over the monied interests of corporate consolidation as the tipping-point moment for media in this country," the group said. It said allowing the merger "to move forward with no meaningful structural remedies will cost jobs, mute creativity, weaken independent journalism, and damage our First Amendment rights. The ripples of this merger will be far-reaching, long-lasting, and impossible to contain."

With a $7 million-per-day fee to WBD shareholders due to kick in when the deal slips past Oct. 1, sources tell CNN that Paramount plans to complete the deal next week, and the name of the combined company could be announced as soon as Thursday. Minutes after the judge's order, Paramount CEO David Ellison said he is hiring Ynon Kreiz, Mattel's CEO since 2018, to be co-CEO after the deal closes. Reuters describes Kreiz as a "seasoned operator" with a background in TV who steered Mattel through the pandemic and turned the company's properties into hit movies like Barbie.