Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s office is openly courting Paramount to relocate its operations from California, capitalizing on the studio’s legal clash with California Attorney General Rob Bonta over its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount’s board has reportedly approved a plan to move its entire operation to Texas, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle, as the company weighs options in Tennessee, Georgia, or Texas. The possible exit comes as Bonta, a Democrat, leads a 12-state coalition in a lawsuit seeking to block the $111 billion merger, which a judge recently ordered Paramount to pause while the legal challenge proceeds.
“Paramount already maintains major production facilities in Texas and has filmed numerous successful productions in Texas over the years,” a spokesperson for Abbott told The New York Post. “Companies that leave high-tax, high-regulation states like California will find opportunity and succeed here.”
The lawsuit, filed by Bonta and joined by Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington, argues the merger would harm the entertainment industry and consumer choice. The Writers Guild of America has also filed its own suit to block the deal.
But the legal pressure is creating a financial ticking clock for Paramount. The company had pledged to pay shareholders a “ticking fee” of about $7 million per day if the merger isn’t closed by September 30. With that deadline just over a month away, the cost of delay is mounting.
Bonta is facing pressure from within the industry to settle. Both the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and IATSE have published an open letter urging the attorney general to drop his lawsuit, expressing concern about the impact of further delays on their members and the industry at large.
“While we have been consistent in our view that mergers, such as this one, historically offer few benefits to workers, we are also particularly concerned about the negative impact a delay in the decision regarding the proposed merger will have on our members and the industry at large,” the unions wrote.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has also reportedly urged Bonta to settle, fearing that killing the merger could cost entertainment jobs and hurt his own political standing as he eyes the 2028 presidential race.
For Texas, the pitch is straightforward: jobs and investment. Abbott’s office points to Paramount’s existing footprint in the state and a business climate it frames as more favorable than California’s. Whether the studio actually makes the move remains to be seen, but the overture signals a growing interstate competition for one of Hollywood’s biggest players.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/08/18/texas-gov-greg-abbott-courts-paramount-with-pitch-to-ditch-high-tax-high-regulation-california/