{"id":397659,"date":"2026-07-14T07:40:57","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397659\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T07:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T07:40:57","slug":"paramount-under-siege-states-go-for-the-kill-the-california-bluff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/397659\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount Under Siege: States Go for the Kill & the California ‘Bluff’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Elaine<\/p>\n

Summer doldrums? Not this year. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state AGs filed a lawsuit this morning against Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, seeking to block the $111 billion merger. Add to that a Semafor<\/a> report that advisers close to PSKY CEO David Ellison are nudging him to consider moving the company out of California, and the town is buzzing again about whether this deal can still close<\/a>, how strong the states\u2019 case is<\/a> and whether the California talk is a real threat or a bluff. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been following Bonta\u2019s moves on this merger since he first publicly spoke<\/a> about possible plans to oppose it. Over the weekend, a former federal antitrust enforcer outlined one path for the suit; today, former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya (a Biden appointee and senior adviser at the American Economic Liberties Project) assesses the case, while current and former executives close to Paramount and WBD weigh in on the prospect of a California exodus.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what\u2019s happening, what might happen next and what to watch as the lawsuit threatens to derail Hollywood\u2019s biggest merger \u2014 and Ellison\u2019s reported exit threat tests what remains of Paramount\u2019s standing in town.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s inside:<\/p>\n

Why Bedoya calls the states\u2019 challenge a\u00a0\u201cstrong suit\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0\u201cbroken math\u201d\u00a0critics say could sink Ellison\u2019s $111 billion deal<\/p>\n

Why Paramount insiders see the threat to leave California as more\u00a0bluff than plan<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t stop here<\/p>\n

Unlock the full story \u2014 and the no-spin reporting Hollywood trusts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Summer doldrums? Not this year. California Attorney General Rob Bonta and 11 other state AGs filed a lawsuit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,21405,6336,2794,26368],"class_list":["post-397659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-david-ellison","tag-paramount","tag-rob-bonta","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397659","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=397659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}