Bonta to detail settlement over Paramount's $111bn Warner Bros bid
California Attorney General Rob Bonta will lay out a settlement over Paramount's $111 billion bid for Warner Bros. Discovery at a 10 a.m. news conference.
The briefing is set to detail an agreement between Paramount and 12 state attorneys general, the state lawyers who challenged the merger in federal court, according to Deadline. Paramount is run by David Ellison.
The states sued Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery on July 13. The group is California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Money is driving the timetable. An October 1 deadline would trigger a $7 million-per-day ticking fee, a daily payment to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders for as long as the merger stayed on hold.
The road to this point was bumpy. Bonta cancelled a negotiation session with Paramount in late August after potential deal terms leaked. Talks later restarted.
Not all the states are aligned. Four of the 12 broke with the Bonta-led faction that wanted to put the dispute to rest for the time being. Separate reporting said settlement talks had paused while some attorneys general pushed for stronger concessions, according to Variety.
The merger itself was formally announced in February. Warner Bros. Discovery turned down Netflix, saying it had received a superior proposal from Ellison's company. Paramount had first proposed acquiring Warner Bros. for $30.00 per share on December 4, 2025.
Paramount Skydance said on August 14 that it had satisfied all regulatory conditions under the merger agreement to close the acquisition. That claim sat alongside an earlier court-ordered pause secured by Bonta, which halted the deal until June 2027 or a court ruling, according to the California Attorney General's Office.
Jobs are part of the fight. Paramount has claimed the merger would deliver $6 billion in cost savings, a figure reported to imply thousands of layoffs.
For viewers, this means waiting for the fine print. The size of the concessions, and whether all 12 states sign on, will decide how fast a combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery can proceed.
