{"id":351611,"date":"2026-06-08T14:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/351611\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T14:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:15:16","slug":"california-new-york-prepare-warner-bros-discovery-paramount-lawsuit-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/351611\/","title":{"rendered":"California, New York prepare Warner Bros Discovery-Paramount lawsuit | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hollywood<\/p>\n

US states including California and New York are preparing to file a lawsuit against Paramount Skydance\u2019s acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).<\/p>\n

The $110bn deal, which was agreed following a tumultuous six-month pursuit, has been opposed by officials of both states while thousands of on and off-screen talent including JJ Abrams, Kristen Stewart and Ben Stiller were among stars to sign a letter earlier this year<\/a> that claimed the acquisition would \u201cthreaten the sustainability of the entire creative community\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hollywood state California and New York will be joined by other as-yet unnamed states in filing a lawsuit against the deal in the coming weeks, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

Rob Bonta, attorney general for California, has been a prominent critic of the deal from the outset when he promised a \u201cvigorous\u201d review of the acquisition that was struck in February.<\/p>\n

Last week, he accused the country\u2019s antitrust agencies of an \u201cabdication\u201d of responsibility over the deal, with the comments coming as the US Department of Justice prepares to issue its own decision on the deal soon.<\/p>\n

News of the lawsuit sent shares of both companies down on Friday, with Paramount dipping 4% and WBD down 3%.<\/p>\n

Paramount landed its deal with WBD following stiff competition from Netflix. As part of its improved offer, the David Ellison-led US studio promised a \u2018ticking fee\u2019 element, which will see shareholders in the HBO owner receiving around $650m each quarter after 30 September until the transaction closes.<\/p>\n

The acquisition is also facing competition scrutiny in other countries, including the UK, where it will bring streamers Paramount+ and recently launched HBO Max under the same ownership, as well as UK broadcaster 5 and a host of production assets.<\/p>\n

European Union (EU) officials have already indicated they are looking at the impact of the deal on creatives, with Paramount applying for EU approval last week.<\/p>\n

A version of this story first appeared on Screen\u2019s sister site, Broadcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US states including California and New York are preparing to file a lawsuit against Paramount Skydance\u2019s acquisition of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-351611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351611","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=351611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}