Democratic lawmakers and California’s attorney general have expressed deep skepticism about Paramount Skydance’s potential acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, the latest twist in a controversial and politically loaded corporate drama after Netflix abruptly withdrew from a bidding war on Thursday.
WBD’s board of directors has yet to formally approve Paramount’s proposal, and any deal between the two Hollywood giants — owners of storied film studios and top streaming apps — would need sign-off from Justice Department regulators. The board is likely to meet on Friday, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“Paramount/Warner Bros. is not a done deal,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory review — the California Department of Justice has an open investigation and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”
Bonta, a Democrat who took office in 2021, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his office’s next steps in the investigation. The US Department of Justice declined to comment on the WBD-Paramount transaction.
The combined entity will be led by David Ellison, son of Oracle mogul Larry Ellison, a close ally of President Donald Trump. “Larry Ellison is great and his son David is great,” Trump told reporters in October. “They’re my friends, they’re my biggest supporters, and they do the right thing.”
In recent months, lawmakers from both parties have warned that an acquisition of WBD by Netflix or Paramount risks concentrating too much power in one media and entertainment company. Sen. Rep. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a prominent voice on competition issues, reiterated those concerns after Netflix dropped out Thursday afternoon.
“A Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. merger is an antitrust disaster that threatens American families with higher prices and fewer choices,” Warren said in a statement.
Warren referred to a meeting with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos at the White House on Thursday: “What did Trump officials say to the Netflix CEO at the White House today?” The sit-down was preceded by an announcement that it would not match Paramount’s offer for Netflix’s WBD assets.
“A handful of Trump-aligned billionaires are trying to control what you see and charge you whatever price they want,” Warren added. “With a cloud of corruption hanging over Trump’s Justice Department, it’s up to the American people to speak up and state attorneys general to enforce the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Warren’s statement.
Politics played an important role in the struggle for WBD. Trump, who at one point said he might weigh in on the deal, told NBC News in early February that he would “not be involved” in the inquiry. Then, last week, he warned Netflix that it would “pay the consequences” if it didn’t fire board member Susan Rice, a former Biden administration official.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust committee had planned to hold a March 4 hearing on competition issues related to the Netflix-WBD tie-up. In an email Friday morning, Sen. A spokesman for Mike Lee, R-Utah, the subcommittee chairman, said the hearing would be canceled.
“Warner Bros.’s proposed acquisition of Netflix raises serious antitrust concerns,” Lee said. “When a massive streaming platform consolidates even more TV shows and movies behind a single paywall, American families lose. Walking away from this deal is a win for consumers.”
The top Democrat on the antitrust panel, Sen. Lee’s statement came after Cory Booker “renewed his invitation” to David Ellison to appear before the subcommittee, an aide to the New Jersey lawmaker said.
Alvaro Bedoya, the former Democratic commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces antitrust law, blasted the proposed deal in a post on X. “One family will control CBS, CNN, HBO and TikTok,” Bedoya wrote, referring to Larry Ellison’s role in running a consortium of TikTok investors. “Block this rotten deal.”
The international reach of both WBD and Paramount means that public authorities outside the US have the opportunity to weigh in, including European Union regulators.
Paramount’s bid for WBD is for the entire company, including the Warner Bros. film studio, HBO, the HBO Max streaming platform and a suite of cable channels that includes CNN. Netflix is looking to acquire only WBD’s studio and streaming units, pending spinning off the cable portfolio as a separate entity.
The expected merger between WBD and Paramount would put CNN under the same roof as CBS News, which could lead to job cuts and other big changes. Ellison has attempted to transform CBS News, notably hiring former New York Times opinion columnist Barry Weiss as the division’s editor-in-chief.
The upheaval at CBS News has made national headlines in recent months. Weiss faced scrutiny after delaying a “60 Minutes” segment about the Trump administration’s deportation policies. He said at the time that the report was “not ready” for broadcast, and an updated version of the segment aired later.
Craig Aaron, co-CEO of Free Press, a consumer advocacy group, dismissed the potential WBD-Paramount merger, warning of dire consequences for the news media.
“The Netflix deal was devastating, but this new one is even worse,” Aaron said in part. “The idea that Paramount should be allowed to control CBS and CNN is unthinkable.” (Free Press has no affiliation with The Free Press, the news and commentary publication co-founded by Weiss.)
The Wall Street Journal reported in December that David Ellison had promised Trump administration officials he would make sweeping changes at CNN if Paramount acquired WBD. NBC News has not verified that report.
Ellison’s Skydance formally acquired Paramount last year in a deal worth $8 billion. The transaction requires approval from the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission, headed by Chairman Brendan Carr.
In seeking approval, Ellison assured the FCC that his incarnation of Paramount would focus on “American storytelling” and scrap corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Netflix’s planned acquisition of WBD has been pushed back by elected officials, including 11 Republican state attorneys general who have called on the Justice Department to investigate the deal.
The state attorney general did not immediately respond to messages asking if he would call for a similar inquiry into the Paramount deal.
Sen. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Ellison’s company deserves the same level of scrutiny.
Paramount is still true of Netflix,” Schiff said at X. “The merger of two of Hollywood’s biggest studios should be subject to high-level scrutiny, free of White House political influence, to determine its impact on American jobs, free speech and the future of our nation’s greatest export.”
The high-stakes corporate maneuvering comes at a perilous time for Hollywood, which is trying to bounce back from a Covid-era box office slump and a series of labor strikes. Traditional film and television industries are grappling with the rise of AI and a wave of productions moving overseas due to tax breaks and other economic benefits.
“We need to bring filmmaking back to our shores, increase production and invest in our workforce,” Schiff said. “For the sake of America’s filmmaking workforce and film lovers everywhere, I will continue to urge all parties to do their part.”
