Paramount’s M&A win seals showbiz’s Hamilton fever

Skydance

22/09/2026 13:00

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
By Jennifer  Saba
NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Alexander Hamilton, the first US treasury secretary, is the favorite founding father of show business. Entertainment company Paramount Skydance PSKY.O owes his vision of a strong central government a debt of gratitude. After receiving the green light from federal antitrust enforcers in Washington, the company has now struck a bargain with state attorneys general who tried to block its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O. It’s a sign of how weak a hand local watchdogs really have.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta led the charge, gathering 11 other prosecutors to file suit against the tie-up. They argued that Paramount and Warner Bros together could concentrate power, reduce the number of films released in theaters and ultimately jack up the price of cable packages. The US Department of Justice cleared the deal, as did other international regulatory bodies. The states’ effort was a last-ditch attempt to stop the credits from rolling.
Bonta confirmed the settlement in a press conference on Monday. In return, Paramount has agreed that it will pay a fine if fails to release a promised 30 movies a year, amounting to $30 million per film that misses the target within a five year time frame. Additionally, Paramount has agreed to set up an independent editorial board to oversee the coverage of cable network CNN and broadcaster CBS.
Settlements aimed at such finicky behavior-policing have a rough track record. Microsoft MSFT.O signed a consent decree with Uncle Sam in 1994 related to its licensing practices. The Department of Justice later sued to break up the software giant, which resulted in another consent decree. Comcast CMCSA.O made a similar handshake with regulators when it bought NBC Universal, only for Bloomberg to file a complaint citing anti-competitive conduct. Meta Platforms’ oversight board, implemented to address content grievances, seems to have done little to keep the company out of controversy.
Such an exercise in futility is to be expected, given states’ track record. When federal enforcers approved the acquisition of wireless carrier Sprint by T-Mobile US TMUS.O, local attorneys again sued to prevent the merger themselves. Their case failed.
In this case, Paramount has clinched a denouement to its deal drama just before a crucial October deadline, when it had agreed to start paying fees for further delays. Remarkably, the DOJ effectively backed the company’s demand that plaintiffs put up a near-$2 billion bond to cover such costs. Much as at the nation’s founding, federalists keep finding ways to exert pressure on the states.
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CONTEXT NEWS
Paramount Skydance has reached a settlement with a group of state attorneys general led by California which sued to block its $110 billion deal with Warner Bros Discovery, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press conference on September 21.
The settlement includes independent editorial boards for the news networks CNN and CBS and a $30 million penalty per film for falling short of Paramount’s promised 30-movies-a-year release target, Reuters reported.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that "this settlement is not a vote of support for this merger."

(Editing by Jonathan Guilford; Production by Pranav Kiran)
((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on SABA/jennifer.saba@thomsonreuters.com))