Paramount has reached a settlement with 12 state attorneys general, clearing the final major antitrust obstacle to its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to reporting from Variety and Bloomberg. The deal, which would be the largest merger in Hollywood history, had been on hold pending the states’ antitrust lawsuit, which was scheduled to go to trial on March 2, 2027.
Terms of the settlement, as reported by Variety and Bloomberg, include the establishment of independent editorial boards for CBS News and CNN, a key demand of the East Coast attorneys general involved in the suit. Notably, the agreement does not require Paramount to make any major divestitures. Bloomberg also reported a financial penalty of $30 million for each film that falls short of Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison’s pledge to produce 30 movies per year.
According to Breitbart’s John Nolte, the settlement was a foregone conclusion, as Ellison “held all the cards” and the state attorneys general “had no legal grounds to stand on.” Nolte characterized the editorial oversight provisions as a “fascist move to force a private corporation to run a news outlet in a State-approved way,” though he noted it was the only true sticking point in the negotiations.
The timing of the settlement is significant for Ellison. Had the matter proceeded to trial in 2027, Paramount would have been required to pay a $7 million per day ticking fee to the WBD board starting October 1, which could have added up to roughly $1 billion. By settling before that date, Ellison avoids that substantial penalty.
Nolte framed the merger as a necessary competitive response to the growing presence of Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Apple, and Netflix in the entertainment content space. Without the merger, he argued, WBD and Paramount could “eventually be eaten alive by an already mammoth company, which meant an even worse outcome for competition.”
He also praised Ellison’s negotiating tactics, noting that Ellison “outmaneuvered Netflix, even after WBD agreed to a deal with Netflix,” and “muscled these communist attorneys general by making a very real threat to move Paramount to Tennessee.”
Nolte predicted that CNN would not criticize the government’s involvement in its editorial operations, writing, “No one at CNN will squawk even a little bit about the government sticking its nose in CNN business. Why? Because in this case, CNN agrees with the government. Hey, fascists of a feather…”
The settlement removes the last major regulatory barrier to the deal, which is now expected to close before October 1.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/21/nolte-paramount-and-12-state-ags-settle-clearing-path-for-warner-bros-merger/