{"id":819211,"date":"2026-07-22T19:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819211\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:14:12","slug":"eu-antitrust-regulators-clear-paramount-wbd-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/819211\/","title":{"rendered":"EU antitrust regulators clear Paramount-WBD merger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"InlineVideo-videoThumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/108338683-17847420131784742010-47324151304-1080pnbcnews.jpg\" alt=\"EU regulators clear Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>European Union antitrust regulators <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/ip_26_1663\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">said<\/a> on Wednesday they had signed off on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/PSKY\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paramount Skydance&#8217;s<\/a> proposed acquisition of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/WBD\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The approval, which included concessions made by Paramount, comes as the deal has been delayed in the U.S. due to concerns raised by state attorneys general. <\/p>\n<p>A Paramount spokesperson didn&#8217;t immediately respond to comment. <\/p>\n<p>In order to garner the approval, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, said Paramount agreed to divest its stake in a film distribution joint venture with United International Pictures in Europe, and said it would not enter into any film distribution deal with Universal for the next 10 years in Europe. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission by ensuring that the films of the merged entity will not be distributed jointly with those Universal or Disney,&#8221; according to the EU&#8217;s release. <\/p>\n<p>Paramount&#8217;s stock rose nearly 3% in afternoon trading. <\/p>\n<p>The EU&#8217;s approval marks a major regulatory milestone for the $110 billion proposed merger. <\/p>\n<p>The deal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/06\/12\/paramount-wbd-merger-approval-doj.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earlier won approval<\/a> from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Various other global jurisdictions have also signed off on the deal. <\/p>\n<p>However, in the U.S., a lawsuit brought forward by a group of state attorneys general last week has become a potential holdup in this deal moving forward. <\/p>\n<p>The coalition led by California&#8217;s Rob Bonta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/07\/13\/paramount-wbd-merger-lawsuit.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">filed a lawsuit<\/a> seeking to block the merger due to antitrust concerns. The tie-up is set to combine two major film studios, Paramount and Warner Bros., a massive portfolio of pay TV networks, and streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week a California district judge granted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/07\/20\/paramount-wbd-merger-delay.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">temporary restraining order<\/a> that puts a 14-day pause on anything moving forward with the merger. <\/p>\n<p>Paramount previously said it is on track to close the merger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/04\/paramount-skydance-psky-earnings-q1-2026.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">by the end of September.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Union antitrust regulators said on Wednesday they had signed off on Paramount Skydance&#8217;s proposed acquisition of Warner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4467,45,161,49,48,59923,28925,53181],"class_list":["post-819211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-breaking-news-business","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-paramount-skydance-corp","tag-walt-disney-co","tag-warner-bros-discovery-inc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}