{"id":790543,"date":"2026-07-29T03:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/790543\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T03:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:19:09","slug":"ari-emanuel-defends-paramount-wbd-deal-in-wsj-piece-blasts-states-antitrust-lawsuit-as-trash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/790543\/","title":{"rendered":"Ari Emanuel Defends Paramount-WBD Deal In WSJ Piece, Blasts States’ Antitrust Lawsuit As “Trash”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAri Emanuel<\/a> is throwing his weight behind Paramount<\/a>\u2018s pending $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, blasting the antitrust<\/a> lawsuit against it as \u201ctrash\u201d in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the headline arguing the merger \u201ccould save Hollywood\u201d to its coda urging government regulators to let creatives \u201cget back to trying to rip each other\u2019s heads off,\u201d the piece<\/a> is a strong endorsement at a key moment. Once widely considered a cinch to close over the summer, the deal has been put into limbo by the suit by 12 state attorneys general<\/a>. After clear signs that a judge was skeptical of its defense<\/a>, Paramount decided to agree to go to trial and not to close the deal<\/a> before June 1, 2027, or a favorable ruling, whichever comes first.<\/p>\n

\n\tEmanuel, CEO of TKO Group<\/a> Holdings and former longtime super-agent who build Endeavor into a major force in Hollywood, is not without conflict in the legal battle. TKO\u2019s UFC<\/a> last year became one of the first beneficiaries of Paramount\u2019s new ownership when the David Ellison-run company paid $7.7 billion for rights<\/a> to the mixed martial arts circuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: David Ellison \u201cConfident\u201d WBD Deal Will Close, Thanks Staffers For Continued Patience<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe tagline used to identify Emanuel to Journal readers says only that he is \u201cexecutive chair and CEO of TKO, which does business with movie studios.\u201d It also declines to note that he is executive chair of WME Group, corporate parent of major agency WME.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe attorneys general \u201csay they are protecting competition. Their actions threaten to destroy it,\u201d Emanuel warns. \u201cThe real threat to competition is what happens if the attorneys general succeed.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou know an antitrust case is trash when it ignores some of the fastest-growing competitors in the market,\u201d he writes. The plaintiffs \u201cpretend Amazon MGM, A24 and Lionsgate don\u2019t exist and that\u00a0Netflix\u00a0isn\u2019t leaning into theatrical films with its coming release of\u00a0Greta Gerwig\u2019s Narnia: The Magician\u2019s Nephew (which I suspect will whet its appetite for more).\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Benedict Cumberbatch Says Paramount-Warner Deal Is A \u201cCalamity\u201d That Must Be Blocked<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tIn the theatrical movie arena, the claims in the complaint about concentration do not \u201cremotely reflect reality,\u201d Emanuel insists.<\/p>\n

\n\tAddressing one of area of controversy, Emanuel says studio theatrical releases compete with YouTube, video games and an array of other screen content. (The lawsuit says the market should be defined as direct competitors in movie releasing, noting that it would effectively collapse two major studios into one.)<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou think I\u2019m letting my client\u2019s horror movie premiere on the same day as a MrBeast video? Or the release of the latest Call of Duty? Or when Netflix drops Wednesday? Think again,\u201d the exec writes. \u201cThe attorneys general don\u2019t get to ignore the platforms that compete every day for audiences, talent, capital and content just because it makes their case harder. Believe me, as somebody who\u2019s in those rooms, every green light, marketing budget and release date is decided against the reality of that broadly competitive environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: Paramount-WBD Merger Opponents Cheer Legal Delay, Stocks Slide As Industry Absorbs Latest Plot Twist<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tThe complaint\u2019s monopoly assertion about cable network concentration, an issue that has surprisingly come to the fore in the case<\/a> a decade after pay-TV\u2019s peak, involves the same \u201csleight of hand,\u201d Emanuel contends. \u201cThis might have been a good argument in 2005 but is absurd in a world of fast-shrinking cable subscriptions and the rise of streaming, which has transformed both consumer behavior and the bargaining environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe delay in the case, which will result in Paramount paying a self-imposed \u201cticking fee\u201d of $650 million per quarter as long as the deal is not closed, already has harmed the company, in Emanuel\u2019s view, by draining its financial resources.<\/p>\n

\n\tPolitics has been a prominent part of the dealmaking saga and the lawsuit, from President Trump\u2019s UFC connections<\/a> to the fact that the lawsuit was filed by an all-Democrat roster of AGs. Addressing the issue, Emanuel affirms he is \u201ca lifelong Democrat\u201d who is sensitive to the fate of CNN. \u201cBut antitrust law can\u2019t be a tool for settling arguments, whether wielded by a Democrat or Republican,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

\n\tJill Goldsmith contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ari Emanuel is throwing his weight behind Paramount\u2018s pending $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, blasting the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[35858,74978,88,14007,4208,228983,336076,6493],"class_list":["post-790543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-antitrust","tag-ari-emanuel","tag-entertainment","tag-mergers-and-acquisitions","tag-paramount","tag-paramount-wbd","tag-tko-group","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790543","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=790543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}