{"id":195973,"date":"2026-02-27T04:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195973\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T04:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T04:39:08","slug":"ca-attorney-general-warns-paramount-warner-merger-not-done-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195973\/","title":{"rendered":"CA Attorney General Warns Paramount Warner Merger Not Done Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe champagne corks may be popping right now at Paramount over the David Ellison<\/a>-owned company\u2019s successful bid for Warner Bros<\/a> Discovery, but up in Sacramento the mood is far from celebratory\u00a0 over the latest possible Hollywood mega-merger. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cParamount\/Warner Bros is not a done deal,\u201d California<\/a> Attorney General Rob Bonta<\/a> told Deadline this evening after Netflix dropped out of bidding for WB\u2019s studio and streaming assets.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny \u2014 the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review,\u201d the Golden State\u2019s top lawman added. <\/p>\n

\n\tBonta\u2019s cold water on the Paramount-WBD<\/a> fireworks comes a week after the CA Department of Justice opened a probe<\/a> into any deal to take over WB \u2014 be it Netflix<\/a> or Ellison\u2019s team. A probe that could see legal action if the deal doesn\u2019t pass muster. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe film and entertainment industry not only has historical importance to our state, it also is a critical sector that buoys the state\u2019s economy of California and touches the lives of Americans daily,\u201d the ambitious AG said on February 20. \u201cThe proposed Warner Brothers transactions must receive a full and robust review, and California is taking a very close look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta<\/p>\n

While not as harsh as Sen. Elizabeth Warren\u2019s prediction of an \u201cantitrust disaster\u201d <\/a>out of a Paramount and WBD union, Bonta\u2019s words echoed to some extent those of fellow Democrat and California\u2019s junior Senator Adam Schiff from earlier today. Both Sens. Warren and Schiff point to potential inside influence after Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s \u201cgood friend\u201d Ellison seemingly snagged his second legacy studio in less than two years.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat was true for Netflix is still true now for\u00a0Paramount<\/a>,\u201d Sen. Schiff said Thursday <\/a>\u201cThe merger of two of Hollywood\u2019s biggest studios must be subject to the highest levels of scrutiny, free from White House political influence, to determine its impact on American jobs, freedom of speech, and the future of one of our nation\u2019s greatest exports.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the other side of America\u2019s fractured political spectrum, the cautions expressed by AG Bonta and Sen. Schiff, were mirrored to some extent by 11 GOP Attorneys Generals<\/a> in a letter sent to Pam Bondi on the same day of the State of the Union. On the back of a DOJ antitrust probe <\/a>launched on February 20, the state AGs on February 24 told the federal AG they wanted \u201cto express our concerns that the proposed merger between Netflix and Warner Brothers will likely result in undue market concentration that stifles competition and therefore creates higher prices, lower reliability, and less innovation for one of America\u2019s major industries \u2014 all to the detriment of American consumers.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn what is now a moot measure, the MAGA AGs were from Montana, \u00a0Alabama, Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.<\/p>\n

\n\tCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom<\/a>, who pushed to have the state\u2019s film and TV tax credit program pumped up to $750 million last year, to kick start production and industry employment, has not yet spoken out on today\u2019s big Tinseltown shifts. Neither for that matter, has Trump, who Newsom relentlessly trolls online. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn both men\u2019s cases, it is surely a matter of when. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The champagne corks may be popping right now at Paramount over the David Ellison-owned company\u2019s successful bid for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,21405,536,457,9233,91423,6336,2794,14955,51319,91424],"class_list":["post-195973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-david-ellison","tag-donald-trump","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-netflix","tag-netflix-wbd","tag-paramount","tag-rob-bonta","tag-warner-bros","tag-wbd","tag-wbd-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}