{"id":462059,"date":"2026-09-13T00:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/462059\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T00:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T00:08:18","slug":"huge-job-losses-economic-pain-if-paramount-exits-la-county-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/462059\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge Job Losses & Economic Pain If Paramount Exits LA , County Report Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThere will be harsh job losses and severe economic pain if Paramount<\/a> carries out its threat to leave California<\/a> over the antitrust action <\/a>a coalition of blue state Attorneys General are pursuing to stop David Ellison<\/a>\u2018s $111 billion merger <\/a>with Warner Bros Discovery, an internal L.A. County<\/a> report estimates. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAt a minimum, relocating Paramount\u2019s headquarters and other operations out f California would result in losses of 2,750 and 5,550 job-years in California across all industries and losses of between $1.01 billion and $2.03 billion in economic output between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2031,\u201d L.A. County\u2019s Economic Development Corporation says in a leaked September 10 document. <\/p>\n

\n\tSimultaneously, as Paramount brass are scheduled to sit down for Potemkin court-ordered settlement talks <\/a>with the AGs next month, a filing in federal court late Friday made clear Ellison\u2019s crew thinks their debt heavy acquisition of WBD shouldn\u2019t even be up for discussion \u2014 antitrust<\/a>, employment-wise, or otherwise.<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, it is the report from L.A. County that likely carries much more weight as Gavin Newsom, IATSE, Karen Bass and more line up to advocate for a settlement in this increasingly personal fight between Bonta and Ellison. No two ways about it, sounding in parts like it was penned down on Melrose, the report hurts. It might save special pain for Supervisor Lindsey Horvath and her four fellow Board members, who unanimously voted in July to support the AGs\u2019 antitrust lawsuit. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith constant leaks out of the Melrose lot that Ellison is contemplating a move to the redder horizons of Tennessee, Georgia or Texas if the AGs don\u2019t holster their legal pistols and start negotiating by October 1, this week\u2019s EDC document from the County offers zero anesthesia for a region that has already suffered the loss of nearly 50,000 jobs and scores of productions that past six years.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOnce Paramount completed the entire relocation of its headquarters and other operations out of California, the state would experience the permanent loss of approximately 28,990 to 57,980 full-time jobs statewide across all industries, and losses of between $10.6 billion and $21.2 billion annually in economic output,\u201d the document says in language that sounds very much like Para\u2019s own ominous protests of just a few days ago.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tAny serious contemplation of Paramount storming out of the Golden State has been downplayed by Paramount. Yet, that October 1 date that\u2019s been floated is no accident. That\u2019s the day Team Ellison have to start forking out $7 million every 24 hours to WBD shareholders if the deal crashes. Cited as \u00a0\u201cextraordinary losses\u201d by Para in an attempt to secure a $1.88 billion bond out of the blue states and WGA plaintiffs, that potentially poisonous ticking fee in the WBD contract adds up to more that $635 million a quarter for Ellison.<\/p>\n

\n\tReal money, no matter who your Dad is.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn that context, and in an even more terse tone that a previous LA. County missives,<\/a> the latest four-page report adds: \u201cNote that since this employment would be lost to California permanently, these figures are more appropriately expressed as full-time jobs instead of job-years.\u201d Then, as a spring 2027 trial looms, there is also the real estate and ancillary blast radius of Para and WBD leaving town. A shuttering of soundstages, closing of vendors and more that would result in \u201cpermanently\u201d decimating the physical and economic foundations built up over 100 years of Hollywood. <\/p>\n

\n\tBleak, to say the least. <\/p>\n

\n\tEven more bleak when one considers the EDC\u2019s own math figure on the upside of one big ParaBros. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cParamount\u2019s post-merger production commitment of 30 features a year for three years would generate a total of between 1,020 and 2,760 job-years in California across all industries and between $377.7 million and $1.01 billion in economic output between October 1, 2026, and September 30, 2031,\u201d the finding (first reported by Politico) asserts with a spotlight on Ellison\u2019s biggest big screen promise. <\/p>\n

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

\t\t\t\t\tRob Bonta<\/a> and Letitia James<\/p>\n

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

\n\tAt the same time, in the mix of the AGs long anticipated July 13 filed antitrust action, Paramount\u2019s September 11 filed Defendants\u2019 Answer to Complaint and Defenses basically insists California AG Rob Bonta, NY AG Letitia James\u00a0and pals just get outta ParaBros\u2019 corporate way and stick to their side of the street. Slicing the AGs as being out of their jurisdiction, the presumption pitched here is the antitrust suit \u201camounts to a series of attempted shortcuts and assumptions that collapse under scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSupercharging the usual litany of agreements and disagreements that characterize such perfunctory responses, Oracle scion Ellison\u2019s lawyers use the filing to pre-argue (bordering on pre-relitigating) their POV on ParaBros ahead of the March 2, 2027 trial <\/a>and a September 24 bond hearing, a pricey ticking fee kick off and a possible SCOTUS intervention.<\/a> \u201cParamount\u2019s proposed merger with Warner Bros. (the \u2018Merger\u2019) will enhance competition, not diminish it,\u201d they state in the 25-page document, citing the AGs as using \u201ccherry-picked data from the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn language we\u2019ve all heard over and over since the AGs took to the legal barricades, Para\u2019s Beth Wilkenson-led legal Seal Team continued: \u201cThe Merger will benefit movie theaters by bringing more films to the big screen. It will benefit cable companies by providing more high-quality content on TV in the face of declining cable subscriptions. It will benefit content creators by increasing investment in, and production of, films and TV shows. And for all these reasons, it will also benefit consumers, not only with more high-quality content in theaters and on cable, but also with a better combined streaming offering to create real competition against dominant tech giants like Netflix, Disney, and Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat sounds a lot like Paramount\u2019s declaration of July 13 that the AGs big move \u201cdistorts settled antitrust law and is based on a misrepresentation of competition in the entertainment industry today,\u201d doesn\u2019t it? <\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s that, and then there\u2019s the real blade being unsheathed in the September 11 filing: \u201cPlaintiffs\u2019 entire theory of leverage falls apart\u2014models that ignore the real world have no basis in a court of law.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0A sentiment stuck in further with: \u201cDay by day, the weak case against this Merger gets even weaker.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBonta\u2019s usually media quick and to the point office was silent when Deadline reached out for a response to Paramount\u2019s official response. As for that L.A. County report \u2026no one was saying nuthin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There will be harsh job losses and severe economic pain if Paramount carries out its threat to leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[86277,7,9,8,5177,21405,8161,6336,2794],"class_list":["post-462059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-antitrust","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-cnn","tag-david-ellison","tag-l-a-county","tag-paramount","tag-rob-bonta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462059","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=462059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}