Paramount Caught California's AG Contradicting His Own Legal Arguments On TV In The WBD Merger Fight
Paramount Skydance filed arguments Tuesday accusing California Attorney General Rob Bonta of undermining his own legal case in television interviews, a move that sets up a potentially significant hearing at the end of the month as the clock ticks on the studio's $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
The dispute is over a bond. Paramount is asking U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin in Oakland to require California and its coalition of 11 other states to post a $1.88 billion bond while the antitrust case plays out, arguing that if Paramount wins, it needs to be able to recover losses from the delay.
By trial in April, the studio says it will have paid WBD shareholders $1.3 billion in ticking fees plus billions more in delayed deal synergies.
The legal wrinkle: one of Bonta's arguments against posting any bond is that Paramount voluntarily agreed to pause closing the deal instead of waiting for a judge-issued injunction, meaning the states should not have to pay for the delay.
But in TV interviews, Bonta himself described that pause as equivalent to an injunction, Paramount argued. Antitrust law requires states to post bonds when they get injunctions. Paramount says Bonta can't have it both ways.
Bonta's office called Paramount's bond motion meritless and said it looks forward to presenting its case at the September 24 hearing. A trial date of March 2027 remains on the books.
