DOJ Clears Paramount/Warner Megamerger

[ABC 7 Denver 1893]

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 342]

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 1893]

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.

[Megatron81 343]

The EU will prove the merger as the land down under Aussie has already approved the deal. And I believe that Ellisons will sell the some of the cable networks as I have heard there willing to sell nick or Cartoon Network.

[ABC 7 Denver 1893]

1 hour ago, Megatron81 said:

The EU will prove the merger as the land down under Aussie has already approved the deal. And I believe that Ellisons will sell the some of the cable networks as I have heard there willing to sell nick or Cartoon Network.

 

I doubt the EU will approve it.

[mre29 1972]

2 hours ago, Megatron81 said:

The EU will prove the merger as the land down under Aussie has already approved the deal. And I believe that Ellisons will sell the some of the cable networks as I have heard there willing to sell nick or Cartoon Network.

 

They're going to have to sell more than just two or three channels, especially since Paramount is, I believe, currently set to have the largest number of cable channels of any company. I'm thinking at least 10-15 channels.

 

Also, they should be forced to choose between HBO (and HBO Max) and CNN. If anything, that requirement would reveal what David Ellison considers to be more important. Does he want to have the major premium channel and its associated streaming service, or does he want to appease Trump?