A federal judge on Wednesday granted Paramount's settlement agreement with 12 states that sued to block its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, clearing the last hurdle for the companies to close their $81 billion merger. Paramount is eyeing an Oct. 6 closing date, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, ruled that the proposed consent decree was a "fair, reasonable, and good faith approach to address the competitive harms" alleged by the states' lawsuit, according to ABC News. The Washington Examiner reported that Martínez-Olguín found the settlement "reflects a procedurally sound resolution" of the dispute.
The deal brings together two of Hollywood's last five legacy studios. CBS News and CNN, HBO Max and Paramount+, and the Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures film libraries will all sit under the same corporate roof, NBC News reported.
Paramount touted clearances from regulators around the world in recent months, including the Trump administration's Justice Department. But in July, top prosecutors from 12 states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued to block the merger. They alleged the combination would "extinguish competition" in Hollywood and leave consumers with fewer choices, particularly moviegoers and cable customers. On Sept. 21, Paramount reached a deal with the states, and Wednesday's order makes it official.
The settlement requires the combined company to do several things. According to NBC News, it must release at least 30 films a year and set up an editorial board to oversee both CNN and CBS News. ABC News reported the states agreed to settle after Paramount pledged to increase film production in the U.S. over the next five years, grant millions of dollars to a fund for workers displaced by the merger, and establish new editorial monitoring. The merged company also pledged to invest more than $1 billion in U.S. film production.
Critics of the settlement have argued the terms are too weak, ABC News reported.
Shortly after the ruling, Paramount CEO and controlling shareholder David Ellison announced that Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz will become co-CEO of the combined media giant. "As Chairman & CEO, Ellison will lead all strategy, creative and technology while Kreiz, as Co-CEO will oversee the Company's day-to-day operations and integration of the combined businesses," the company said in a statement reported by NBC News.
The corporate shakeup didn't stop there. Several outlets reported this week that Paramount streaming chief Cindy Holland is leaving the studio and that HBO chief Casey Bloys will take a new role running the combined streaming operations, according to NBC News.
Ellison's father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is a close ally of President Donald Trump and is personally backing the deal with tens of billions of his own fortune. After acquiring Paramount, David Ellison appointed former New York Times opinion writer Bari Weiss to run CBS News. Weiss has clashed with longtime correspondents and faced accusations of meddling with their editorial independence, NBC News reported.
The states' lawsuit had centered not only on competition but on the journalistic independence of CNN. Bonta and other attorneys general raised that concern specifically. The editorial board created under the settlement is the states' answer to it.
For consumers, the practical effects will take time to sort out. Streaming libraries, cable carriage deals, theatrical release schedules and newsroom operations across two of the most recognizable brands in American media all hang on how the integration is run. The companies expect to complete the deal on Oct. 6.
Our Take
Let's be blunt about what just happened here. A Democratic attorney general in California sued to stop a merger that the Justice Department, the European Commission and dozens of other regulators worldwide had already cleared. That lawsuit didn't kill the deal. It bought the Left a consolation prize: a government-sanctioned editorial board sitting over CNN and CBS News, extracted under the color of a settlement rather than won at trial.
Think about the precedent, patriots. On its face, editorial oversight of private newsrooms should be a non-starter in a country whose First Amendment forbids Congress from abridging the freedom of the press. When the price of closing a lawful merger is handing state officials a seat at the table inside two news divisions, that's not a free market. That's leverage, and it was exercised by the same political coalition that spent years telling you it was defending democracy from Trump.
Which makes the Bonta lawsuit itself worth studying. Federal antitrust is the Justice Department's job, and the Justice Department already said yes. Twelve state attorneys general suing to overrule that finding isn't competition policy. It's a blue-state veto over the media business, filed in a forum they hoped would sympathize.
The one thing the deal got right is the news leadership. Bari Weiss at CBS News is a genuine break from the legacy media club that spent a decade lecturing you, and the new editorial structure at CNN will only matter if real people with real independence run it. If it becomes a talking shop for the same tired voices, the states will have built themselves a shield with Paramount's money.
Watch what happens next. Watch whether the 30-films-a-year commitment is a floor or a ceiling. Watch whether a billion dollars in domestic production stays in Hollywood or gets spread to right-to-work states. Watch who ends up on that CNN-CBS editorial board, and whether they will dare referee their own ideological allies.
The merger closes Oct. 6. The fight over who controls what Americans see and hear is just getting started. Will the new bosses at Paramount-Warner stand up to the politicians who just wrote themselves into the credits, or will they learn to live with the leash?
