With a legal settlement approved by a federal judge, Paramount is now free to complete its deal to acquire Warner Bros, which could be done in a week.
After months of deal-making and drama, Paramount’s $110bn takeover of Warner Bros could be days away from completion.
On the 21st September, Paramount managed to reach a settlement with a coalition of state Attorneys General which had previously sought to block the merger from taking place. That settlement has now been formally approved by a federal judge – this was, essentially, the final bit of legal paperwork that had to be signed off.
Paramount’s David Ellison and his execs are therefore free to close the transaction – and according to Deadline, the studio aims to do so quickly. Paramount is contractually required to pay Warner Bros shareholders a $7m per day late fee from today (1st October), and so the thought is that the acquisition could be completed within days – perhaps as soon as the 6th October.
Less than a year ago, it looked as though Netflix was the most likely suitor for Warner Bros, with the latter’s CEO David Zaslav having put the studio up for sale in late 2025. But then Paramount – having only recently been acquired by Ellison’s Skydance – swooped in with an unexpectedly huge $108.4bn counter-offer directly to Warner’s shareholders.
Read more: Warner Bros | A brief history of terrible corporate mergers
At first, Warner rejected the offer, stating that Netflix seemed like the better partner; Paramount then came back with an even higher offer, prompting Netflix – deeming the price to be “no longer financially attractive” – to back out in February 2026.
There has been considerable opposition to the merger, with filmmakers, stars, Hollywood guilds and pressure groups all arguing that the loss of another studio will represent fewer jobs and too much bargaining power centralised in one company (among other arguments).
A legal case brought by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, leading a coalition of AGs in other US states, threatened to drag the process out by months – perhaps even scuppering it entirely, if Paramount were forced to pay its $7m per day ticking fee for too long.
The abrupt settlement in September came after Paramount’s repeated threats that it would move its operations out of California entirely if a deal wasn’t reached by the end of that month.
As part of its settlement, Paramount has pledged to make 30 films per year, which will be released in cinemas and have budgets of $50m or more. It’s made other commitments, too, though as those who’s scrutinised the settlement have pointed out, Paramount is free to back out of them via a ‘force majeure’ loophole. If there’s a financial crash or even another Hollywood strike (not an earthquake or a tsunami), Paramount will be free to ignore its obligations.
Of the deal, pressure group Stop The Merger said in a statement, “In years to come, we’ll be able to point to this failure to put consumers over the monied interests of corporate consolidation as the tipping-point moment for media in this country.
“Allowing the Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery merger to move forward with no meaningful structural remedies will cost jobs, mute creativity, weaken independent journalism, and damage our First Amendment rights. The ripples of this merger will be far-reaching, long-lasting, and impossible to contain.”
