{"id":429776,"date":"2026-08-11T13:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/429776\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T13:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:58:09","slug":"ellison-to-move-paramount-out-of-california-if-states-refuse-to-negotiate-settlement-in-antitrust-suit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/429776\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellison to Move Paramount Out of California if States Refuse to Negotiate Settlement in Antitrust Suit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Ellison<\/a> is eager to reach a swift resolution in the antitrust case filed by 12 states seeking to block the Paramount-Warner Bros.<\/a> Discovery merger. And, in a move seemingly aimed at gaining leverage in the showdown, he\u2019s prepared start moving Paramount out of California as soon as October unless the state\u2019s attorney general, Rob Bonta, agrees to settlement talks, Variety has confirmed.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison told Paramount senior execs last week that he\u2019s prepared to relocate Paramount (and Warner Bros., too, if the merger successfully closes) if Bonta does not agree to negotiate a settlement in the case, sources confirmed to Variety. Ellison said the company will begin the process of exiting California starting Oct. 1 in the event that such talks have not started, and he told his team the Paramount Skydance<\/a> board has approved the move.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount declined to comment. Ellison\u2019s threat to relocate Paramount \u2014 including much of its studio operations, over time \u2014 was first reported by industry newsletter Puck<\/a>. Variety has reached out to the California AG\u2019s office for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tBonta has not publicly said what concessions from Paramount-WBD he would consider acceptable enough to take the lawsuit off the table. But the Democratic attorney general has said any remedies would need to be \u201cstructural\u201d (i.e., divestments) rather than \u201cbehavioral\u201d (e.g., imposing certain production quotas).<\/p>\n

\n\tOct. 1 is when Paramount will begin accruing a \u201cticking fee\u201d payable to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders of $7 million per day. The trial in the state AGs\u2019 lawsuit is scheduled to start March 2, 2027,<\/a> roughly five months after that, so Paramount would be on the hook to pay around $1.2 billion to WBD shareholders by the time the trial is scheduled to conclude. (Paramount\u2019s ticking-fee payments to WBD are not due until the deal closes.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the Aug. 5 meeting on Paramount\u2019s lot, Ellison told his 12-member senior executive team he expects Paramount to prevail in the antitrust case against the states. However, he also said that if Bonta balks at talks, Paramount will start packing up and moving out of the Golden State in less than two months.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount\u2019s L.A. headquarters would move out the state first, with tax incentives from states allegedly helping to cover the costs of the relo. Ellison also outlined a five-year plan to shift most studio jobs out of California, sources said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a sign of how sudden this decision is, Paramount hasn\u2019t yet decided where its new home might be; the company is considering destinations including Georgia, Texas and Tennessee. Paramount executives at the Aug. 5 meeting included Paramount\u2019s studio bosses, Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein, and CBS and TV media chair George Cheeks, a company insider confirmed.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison\u2019s announcement of the Oct. 1 start date for Paramount\u2019s potential move out of SoCal \u2014 which would obviously be disruptive and logistically fraught \u2014 caught some execs off guard. A large-scale exit from California could prompt a wave of employees to quit, particularly as major layoffs loom if Paramount ultimately consummates the Warners merger.<\/p>\n

\n\tEllison and much of the senior team work out from the Paramount Pictures studio lot, located at 5555 Melrose Ave. in Hollywood. However, in SEC filings, Paramount Skydance continues to list 1515 Broadway in New York (where the former Paramount Global had its HQ) as the \u201caddress of principal executive offices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe notion that Ellison would exit California if the state AGs sued<\/a> to block the Paramount-WBD merger was floated in an item last month by\u00a0Semafor<\/a>. According to that report, Ellison\u2019s \u201cfriends and advisers\u201d were \u201cpushing the media executive to consider shifting his business out of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the end of 2025, Paramount Skydance had about 17,600 workers worldwide. Warner Bros. Discovery had 35,500. If the merger does cross the finish line, Ellison and his team are expected to slash thousands of jobs at the combined company to achieve cost savings and streamline operations.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo help fund its takeover of Warner Bros., Paramount has lined up $24 billion in commitments from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. According to Paramount,\u00a0the three Middle Eastern funds would own 38.5% of the combined Paramount-Warner Bros.<\/a>\u00a0In SEC filings, Paramount has said that foreign investors backing the WBD bid will not have board seats or own any voting shares, and that therefore a U.S. government review of the deal\u2019s financing is not warranted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Ellison is eager to reach a swift resolution in the antitrust case filed by 12 states seeking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,21405,61135,170945],"class_list":["post-429776","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-skydance","tag-paramount-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429776","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=429776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}