The Paramount-Warner Bros mega-merger still has a few hurdles to get over

The Paramount-Warner Bros mega-merger still has a few hurdles to get over The $110bn deal will require approval from regulatory authorities in the US, the EU and the UK Champagne reportedly flowed at Paramount Skydance headquarters late last week after the media conglomerate edged out Netflix to acquire the entirety of Warner Bros Discovery for a cool $110bn. And on a call with analysts and investors on Monday morning, David Ellison, Paramount Skydance’s chief executive, said the company was “absolutely confident” that the merger will expeditiously pass regulatory muster both in the US and abroad. “We’ve been engaging with regulators around the world and the combination does not come close to hitting any of the metrics that would be problematic,” Ellison said. But the deal, which drew outraged statements from many Democratic members of the US Senate, doesn’t necessarily have a glide path to closing, antitrust and competition experts say. While Congress does not have any power to stop the merger, a state attorney general – or a coalition of attorneys general – could sue to block the deal, which could put the matter in front of a judge. “I definitely think they have a shot at stopping it if they pool their resources to make a challenge,” Alvaro Bedoya, who served on the Federal Trade Commission between 2022 and 2025, said in an interview. In that vein, Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, said in a post on X that he was “in conversation” with fellow state attorneys general. “Paramount/Warner Bros is not a done deal,” Bonta said in a statement after the deal was announced. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny – the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.” (Bonta, who was not made available for an interview, did not provide any further comment.) “A combined lawsuit by state attorneys general presents a real threat,” Bill Baer, who served as assistant attorney general in char...