Paramount Asks Court for $1.88 Billion Bond as Merger Ticking Fee Nears $7 Million a Day
Paramount has filed federal court paperwork seeking a roughly $1.88 billion bond from the blue-state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America, the parties suing to block its merger with Warner Bros Discovery. The filing, made on Monday, comes as Paramount faces a ticking fee that could cost it millions of dollars each day the deal remains unresolved. (Deadline, 17 August 2026)
The merger at the centre of the dispute is David Ellison's $111 billion deal to combine Warner Bros Discovery with Paramount. California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 12 state attorneys general in filing an antitrust lawsuit in July to challenge the transaction, valued at approximately $110 billion in their filing. (California AG press release, 13 July 2026)
The Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East filed their own suit on 14 July 2026 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, arguing the merger would violate federal antitrust law and harm writers. (WGA press release, 14 July 2026; Reuters, 14 July 2026)
The bond Paramount is now seeking would help cover costs tied to a ticking-fee provision in the deal: Paramount Skydance is obliged to pay Warner Bros Discovery shareholders $7 million per day starting within a few weeks, regardless of whether the merger has closed. By the time the antitrust trial begins on 2 March 2027, Paramount told the court it could owe approximately $1.3 billion in ticking consideration to WBD shareholders. (Deadline, 17 August 2026)
That trial is scheduled before Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, an Oakland-based federal judge who previously granted a temporary restraining order blocking the merger from closing. In that earlier ruling, she waived the security and bond requirement, writing that the plaintiff states bring suit to enforce important public interests. Paramount's new filing asks the court to reverse that waiver. (Deadline, 17 August 2026)
The deal has travelled a long road to this point. Paramount launched an all-cash tender offer for Warner Bros Discovery in December 2025, submitting a premerger notification filing under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. In February 2026, Paramount enhanced its $30-per-share offer by adding a $0.25-per-share fee to signal confidence in securing antitrust clearance. The offer was backed by $41 billion in new equity from investors and was not subject to any financing conditions. (Paramount IR, 8 December 2025; Paramount IR, 10 February 2026)
U.S. antitrust regulators had appeared poised to approve the transaction, according to a Reuters report in June 2026. That federal stance left the state coalition and the WGA as the principal parties challenging the deal in court. (Reuters, 8 June 2026)
The antitrust trial on 2 March will determine whether the merger can proceed — and, in the meantime, the clock on that daily fee keeps running.
