Paramount seeks $1.88B bond from state AGs to cover WBD merger delay costs
Paramount is requesting a $1.88 billion bond from state attorneys general who are challenging its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The company argues that the legal delay is causing significant financial harm.
Why it matters
This legal maneuver highlights the high financial stakes of media consolidation and the increasing role of state-level antitrust litigation in blocking major corporate mergers.
Paramount Skydance will seek to force the states holding up its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to pay for the fees and costs associated with the delay, according to a new filing in the antitrust case Monday.
Paramount is requesting a $1.88 billion bond that would be posted by the states behind the lawsuit. In July, a dozen state attorneys general led by California's Rob Bonta filed to challenge the proposed $110 billion merger between Paramount and WBD.
The proposed deal would combine two storied film studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. — as well as put together a sprawling portfolio of pay-TV networks in the U.S. and streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+.
The group of state attorneys general said in its initial filing that the merger would violate the Clayton Antitrust Act , which is the more-than- 100-year-old law that prohibits anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions.
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