{"id":783196,"date":"2026-07-25T05:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/783196\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T05:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:41:10","slug":"paramount-wbd-merger-foes-cheer-legal-delay-stocks-slide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/783196\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramount-WBD Merger Foes Cheer Legal Delay, Stocks Slide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfter Friday\u2019s delay in the Paramount-WBD antitrust lawsuit<\/a>, shares of both media companies slid in after-hours trading, foes of the merger exulted and observers tried to process the latest twist in the merger saga.<\/p>\n

\n\tCalifornia Attorney General Rob Bonta<\/a> hailed the agreement, under which Paramount<\/a> pledged not close the $110 billion deal before June 1, 2027, or a legal determination of the suit\u2019s merits, whichever comes first. The pact is \u201cgreat news for audiences, movie theaters, and the many people who write, build, and create the art, news, and entertainment so many of us enjoy,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re eager to continue to make our case in court and celebrate another tremendous win in our effort to ensure this unlawful merger never sees the light of day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a press briefing on Zoom, activists who joined the fight led by the 12 state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America adopted a pragmatic tone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe power of many can beat the power of money when we organize \u2013 and this is not a done deal,\u201d said Anjuli Kronheim Katz, executive director of the Committee for the First Amendment. \u201cWe\u2019re not also being overly presumptive that we\u2019re going to block this merger. It\u2019s not a full victory, but it is an important indication of the power that we\u2019ve built and what\u2019s possible when we organize people. There\u2019s a lot more to do. This is going to be hard, but it is not hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPeter Murrieta, secretary-treasurer of the WGA West, joined the briefing from Comic-Con in San Diego to decry the deal\u2019s potential to \u201cpush down our compensation for writers\u201d or cut the output of films and series. (Paramount has described the merger as \u201cpro-Hollywood\u201d and disputes the assertion that it will have a negative impact on workers.)<\/p>\n

\t\tFinancial Sector Reacts\t<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount stock touched a 52-week low on the news before closing at $8.21 and drifting down another three cents in after-hours trading. WBD<\/a> shares fell almost 1% during the trading day before sagging a bit more after the session.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe financial sector was stunned by the development, which was announced with about an hour left in the trading day. Paul Nary, a management professor and M&A specialist at U. Penn\u2019s Wharton School, posted on X that the situation will be a \u201cmore expensive adventure\u201d given the delay. He noted the $7.2-million-per-day \u201cticking fee\u201d Paramount has promised to pay WBD shareholders if the deal doesn\u2019t close by September 30. A breakup fee of $7 billion will be owed to WBD if the deal is abandoned.<\/p>\n

\n\tParamount \u201cclearly saw the writing on the wall\u201d after the judge initially granted and then extended a temporary restraining order pausing the deal, Abiel Garcia, partner at Kesselman Brantly Stockinger, told Deadline. Standards for a TRO and a preliminary injunction \u2013 the stage that would have followed the TRO \u2013 are similar, he said, noting that the judge\u2019s TRO order contained a few key footnotes working against Paramount. They included cautions that the David Ellison-led company could not address streaming efficiency as an argument in the case; and that monies due (the ticking fee) was not a reason to accelerate the proceedings.<\/p>\n

\n\tHad the AGs been able to win a PI, \u201cthat\u2019s a bad look\u201d that would have further emboldened the states, said Garcia, who began his career at the California Department of Justice as a deputy attorney general. \u201cI think they had to do this to try to keep themselves afloat and not lose control of the schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe AGs have said they wanted a trial date in the winter. People familiar with the case have told Paramount will likely propose a date in November.<\/p>\n

\n\tMost experts anticipate that Paramount will appeal to the Ninth Circuit if it loses at trial, and would ultimately look to take the case to the Supreme Court. It\u2019s not clear that the AGs would appeal.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe June 1 date in Friday\u2019s agreement appears to reflect the fact that the WBD merger agreement technically expires on June 7 if the deal hasn\u2019t closed. The parties would need a few days to figure that out.<\/p>\n

\n\tRegardless of the exact timetable, the milestone effort to reshape Hollywood, a story that seemed to be reaching its end just two weeks ago will now have several more drama-filled chapters.<\/p>\n

\t\tGirding For Battle\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBy skipping the preliminary injunction process, Paramount is aiming to re-orient their case as it proceeds to trial. \u201cParamount is saying that they have all this evidence that markets don\u2019t work the way the AGs are saying \u2026 They\u2019re going to try and move away from traditional markets, how things have been defined before. It\u2019s not an easy thing to do, but it\u2019s doable. Markets evolve and change,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

\n\tWGA leaders noted at Friday\u2019s presser that they\u2019ll use the time to continue to generate support, solicit testimony and further build the case.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ticking fee and momentum from the lawsuit<\/a>\u2018s early traction suggest \u201cthe states will likely be in no mood to settle, at least not early on, and at least not without major concessions,\u201d U. Penn\u2019s Nary observed.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the frustrations of Ellison; his father, Larry Ellison, the Oracle billionaire and deal backer; and others in the Paramount camp have taken center stage in recent days, WBD also faces a difficult path. Already preparing for its fourth corporate ownership change in the past decade, employees at the company will experience confusion and inertia in the coming months. And don\u2019t forget, for a while they believed they were being taken over by Netflix after the streaming giant sealed a deal last December, outdueling Comcast and Paramount in the initial bidding rounds.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company is \u201cstuck in limbo for now,\u201d Nary wrote. It \u201ccan\u2019t make major changes to position themselves for survival if they believe the deal will fail, and can\u2019t start the integration process\/restructuring with $PSKY. From my perspective, I think this means WBD business may suffer either way, making it even more difficult for them to go back to being a reasonably well-positioned standalone firm if the deal doesn\u2019t close, and also making Paramount\u2019s already tough job of integrating, cost-cutting, and making this deal work if and when they do close even more of an uphill battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, a deal that was hurtling through the regulatory process at a remarkable pace, going from proposal to the verge of completion in about five months, has now entered into a period of stasis. Executives from both companies are set to report their quarterly earnings over the next couple of weeks, and will certainly encounter questions about having to revise their optimistic projections about wrapping up the deal over the summer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe deal may still close or it may not,\u201d Forrester Research VP Mike Proulx told the Wall Street Journal. \u201cWhat we know is that the path to either outcome just got longer, messier, and likely more expensive.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Friday\u2019s delay in the Paramount-WBD antitrust lawsuit, shares of both media companies slid in after-hours trading, foes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[35858,5109,88,2932,14007,4208,228983,93508,20007],"class_list":["post-783196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-antitrust","tag-electionline","tag-entertainment","tag-lawsuit","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wbd","tag-rob-bonta","tag-wbd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}