EXCLUSIVE: The $111 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery has a long way to go and many “regulatory hurdles” to cross before it’s truly a done deal, says California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“Whenever there’s major corporate consolidation like this, there’s a concern that we might see increased prices, lower wages, reduction in competition, limits in choice, lower quality, all those things,” the Golden State’s top lawman told Deadline today.
Our conversation Thursday came after a coalition of Blue State AGs unveiled a new lawsuit against the Trump administration over “illegal” tariffs.
“That’s why there is antitrust law in the first place,” Bonta added of the Paramount-WBD pact, blasting the federal government for seemingly rubber stamping the deal with Trump’s self-declared “good friends” the Ellison family. The CA AG also noted there “is interest from other states” about a potential joint action over PARA + WBD, like the tariffs suit.
But don’t listen to me, take a read:
DEADLINE: Today David Ellison said that the proposed Paramount-WBD merger would be good for consumers, good for content creators, and there is no reason it couldn’t close ASAP. Sounds very different from your point of view last week, don’t you think?
ATTORNEY GENERAL ROB BONTA: As I said before, it’s not a done deal.
The regulatory hurdles have not been crossed by the deal yet. We have an investigation that’s open and ongoing, and we are looking at the deal. Whenever there’s major corporate consolidation like this, there’s a concern that we might see increased prices, lower wages, reduction in competition, limits in choice, lower quality, all those things. That’s why there is antitrust law in the first place. That’s why there’s regulators like my office that care and will look and be objective and fair, thorough and comprehensive in our review and come to a conclusion.
We haven’t come to a conclusion yet. We might agree with some of what Mr. Ellison is saying. We might disagree with some or all of what he’s saying. We might come where somewhere in between. We’re not, we haven’t prejudged this.
DEADLINE: Where is that at as of today?
ATTORNEY GENERAL BONTA: We’re going through the process and looking. You know, of course, he has an outcome that he wants so and he has a view that he shares. That’s why there’s independent regulatory review, and we are that regulator, and as are other states that are interested in this deal and its impacts.
Unfortunately, it seems like the federal government has withdrawn from its traditional role here, and not necessarily doing a rigorous and robust antitrust review of the proposed deal. But whatever they do, the federal government and maybe they will do it, but we will do our own independent review here in California. So we’re looking closely, Again, it’s not a done deal, and we haven’t arrived at any conclusions yet. We are in the middle of our ongoing investigation.
DEADLINE: Attorney General, last week you said that you were talking to other attorney generals. Are you considering something like what we’re seeing today around the response to President Trump’s tariff policy?
ATTORNEY GENERAL BONTA: There is interest from other states in the Paramount Warner Brothers proposed deal.
I don’t know where they’re going to end up. Interest doesn’t mean a final outcome or conclusion, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a possibility of multiple states working together, it could be just us, or we all could be satisfied, after we do our due diligence, that the deal should go through as is.
So. again, we haven’t prejudged it, but outside of California, there are other states that are interested in the deal as well.
Along with the Blue States AG tariff suit, Attorney General Bonta’s remarks Thursday came just hours after Paramount CEO Ellison appeared on CNBC to pitch the WBD deal as a win-win.
“Our deal is pro-competitive and good for the creator and good for creators,” Ellson told Squawk on the Street’s Julia Boorstin and David Faber in the dawn hours. “Basically, the creative ecosystem now has more places to sell and more scaled buyers and consumers now have more choices,” the exec insisted.
Tellingly, Boorstin and Faber tried to get Ellison to address the AG’s assertion this was “not a done deal,” but the CEO weaved away from giving them direct answer.
What Ellison did say was: “We’ve met with all the Democratic state AGs. We’ve met with the Republican AGs. And we’re going to continue to basically collaborate obviously with regulators throughout this process. In terms of basically, you know, whether or not they can slow us down, as I said, we could technically close tomorrow, but also at the end of the day, we’re all governed by the law. And the reality of this is there is nothing in this transaction that trips anything that would create cause for concern.”
While AG Bonta clearly disagrees on whether there is anything in the Paramount-WBD melding that could create concern, he did confirm to Deadline today that he has in fact met with Ellison.
The rest? TBD.
