By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Monday ordered Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery to halt\u00a0their $81 billion merger<\/a>\u00a0for at least two weeks, allowing\u00a0states that are challenging the deal<\/a>\u00a0more time to see their case through in court.<\/p>\n Twelve states, led by California, sued to block Paramount\u2019s pending buyout of Warner last week\u2014 alleging that such a combination would \u201cextinguish competition\u201d in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly moviegoers and cable customers across the U.S.<\/p>\n The states\u2019 top prosecutors called on Warner and Paramount to not close the transaction until after a court had time to \u201cfully evaluate\u201d their claims. And when the companies refused, they filed for a temporary restraining order \u2014 which is what District Judge Araceli Mart\u00ednez-Olgu\u00edn granted on Monday. That opens the door to a potential preliminary injunction that the states are also seeking to effectively block the deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a critical first win in our case to ensure this megamerger never sees the light of day,\u201d California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement following Monday\u2019s order. \u201cHistory tells the tale of what happens when a few people have great power over markets that are central to Americans\u2019 lives: fewer opportunities for more people, worse products and services for all people.\u201d<\/p>\n A Warner-Paramount tie-up would bring together\u00a0two of the five last legacy studios<\/a>\u00a0in Hollywood \u2014 as well as host of TV networks, titles filling streaming libraries and news operations. That\u00a0would include<\/a>\u00a0Warner\u2019s HBO Max, fan favorites like \u201cHarry Potter\u201d and\u00a0even CNN<\/a>\u00a0coming under the same roof of Paramount-owned CBS, movies like \u201cTop Gun\u201d and the Paramount+ streaming service.<\/p>\n Paramount did not immediately comment on Monday\u2019s order. But the company, which was bought out\u00a0by Skydance<\/a>\u00a0just last year, has vowed to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d its Warner acquisition. Paramount previously called the states\u2019 complaint \u201cwrong on both the facts and the law,\u201d maintaining that a merger would instead strengthen competition against bigger entertainment rivals. And it touted regulatory greenlights the deal has received elsewhere, including from\u00a0the administration of President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n The temporary restraining order granted Monday halts the deal from progressing for at least 14 days, although the pause could be extended for up to 28 days. The court has set Aug. 3 as a date for a hearing on the states\u2019 preliminary injunction motion, although that schedule could also be pushed back.<\/p>\n The clock is ticking. Many were previously bracing for Paramount and Warner to try closing their deal as soon as later this week. And ahead of Monday\u2019s decision, the companies proposed wrapping up a preliminary injunction hearing by the end of August, leaving time to make a possible appeal by Sept. 30 \u2014 a date on the top of Paramount\u2019s mind because it\u2019s pledged to pay shareholders added \u201cticking fee\u201d compensation amounting to about $7 million per day if the deal isn\u2019t closed by then.<\/p>\n But the states called such a timeline unprecedented and unfair. They maintain that money Paramount might have to incur after Sept. 30 was the risk of a decision the company made on its own \u2014 and argued in a hearing held Friday that commencing a trial in April 2027 would allow enough time to for discovery and presenting proper evidence.<\/p>\n Including billion of dollars in debt, Paramount\u2019s proposed purchase of Warner is currently valued at nearly $111 billion based on outstanding shares.<\/p>\n Beyond California, states joining Monday\u2019s lawsuit include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington. And others \u2014 including the\u00a0Writers Guild of America<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 are also suing to block the merger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Monday ordered Paramount and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[162587,48,52,51,47,50,49,162588,116254],"class_list":["post-405511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-are-paramount-and-warner-still-merging","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-paramount-warner-merger-paused","tag-paramount-warner-merger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405511","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=405511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}