Paramount and California to Meet as Merger Settlement Talks Resume
Representatives of Paramount Skydance are expected to meet on Monday with the California Attorney General's office to discuss a potential settlement of the antitrust case blocking the company's $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, according to two sources familiar with the situation Variety.
The meeting comes at a tense moment. California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 12 state attorneys general — New York among them — in filing suit in July to block the merger, arguing it would illegally shrink competition in theatrical film distribution and basic cable. The case is set for trial in March in federal court in Oakland. The Writers Guild of America has filed its own lawsuit, which will be tried alongside the states' case.
Bonta has said he is open to a negotiated resolution but insists on "robust structural remedies" — meaning changes to the combined company's structure, not just promises about its behaviour. Speaking to CNBC on 20 August 2026, he said any deal would need to address concentration in the film and basic cable markets CNBC. His office has argued that behavioural pledges of the kind Paramount has offered are impossible to enforce in practice.
Paramount has pledged to make 30 films a year for three years and keep them exclusively in cinemas for at least 45 days, as commitments to try to get a deal done. Bonta's team has dismissed such promises as inadequate.
The pressure to settle is mounting from several directions. The Directors Guild of America, the entertainment workers' union IATSE, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, and the exhibition trade group Cinema United have all publicly backed a settlement. At a hearing this week, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin asked the parties to name two potential magistrate judges to oversee mediation by next Wednesday.
The road has been far from smooth. David Ellison, who leads the combined Paramount Skydance, said on 11 August that he would move Paramount out of California if the states do not settle. Bonta called that a "blackmail attempt" Variety. Days later, Paramount filed a motion asking the court to force the states and the Writers Guild to post a $1.88 billion bond to cover potential costs from the litigation. Bonta said Paramount was seeking a "do-over" on its agreement to delay the merger Variety.
For the people who make a living on the lots — crews, writers, projectionists, the whole chain — the stakes are concrete. A merger that closes could reshape which films get made, how many screens they reach, and how many studios remain to compete for their work. A trial that drags on keeps everything in limbo. Monday's meeting will not resolve that on its own. But it is the first sign in weeks that both sides are willing to sit at the same table.
The merger cannot close without a settlement or a court victory. The states say they are prepared to go to trial.
