DOJ Clears Paramount/Warner Megamerger

[ABC 7 Denver 1890]

The Justice Department has signed off on the $110 billion Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, concluding after an eight-month investigation that the deal is "not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers." This is really difficult to take that at face value. This merges two of Hollywood's oldest studios, combining CBS, Paramount+, HBO Max, CNN, and a suite of cable channels under one roof controlled by David Ellison, son of Oracle's Larry Ellison and a Trump ally. Over 1,000 entertainment professionals sent an open letter calling this out as further concentrating an already concentrated market.

 

The DOJ reviewed two million documents and heard from extensive third parties. That doesn't scream confidence in the outcome. It screams "we covered ourselves."

 

We must also consider recent actions of Bari Weiss. Ellison installed her as CBS News editor-in-chief, and one of her first major moves was firing multiple "60 Minutes" correspondents at the end of the most recent season. Think about that timing: Weiss purges veteran CBS News talent while the acquisition is still pending DOJ clearance. Whether that was editorial housecleaning, ideological realignment, or a signal to Ellison's allies in Washington is a fair question nobody at DOJ apparently felt like asking. That's the part the "not harmful to competition" framing conveniently sidesteps. Competition in distribution is one thing. What happens to editorial independence when a Trump-aligned owner's hand-picked editor starts cutting staff at a 60-year-old news institution before the ink is even dry is another question entirely.

 

State AGs in California and New York are still investigating. Senator Warren is calling it "terrible news for every American." The EU is reviewing the deal separately over its backing by three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds: Saudi Arabia's PIF, Abu Dhabi's L'IMAD, and Qatar's QIA.

 

This is not settled. Watch the AG actions.

 

Source: NBC News

[Glimmer 341]

Even with this, there is no way this deal actually passes this year.  The EU review is likely to last into the fall, by which time the multi-state AG lawsuit will probably be filed.  We’ve got a long way to go…

[ABC 7 Denver 1890]

4 minutes ago, Glimmer said:

Even with this, there is no way this deal actually passes this year.  The EU review is likely to last into the fall, by which time the multi-state AG lawsuit will probably be filed.  We’ve got a long way to go…

 

No doubt. I'm already talking to my AG.