After this week’s double punch of news that, first, the Warner Bros. Discovery board had decided Paramount’s latest bid was the “superior proposal” and that Netflix’s response was not to raise its own offer but rather to back out entirely, it’d be tempting to assume Hollywood’s biggest deal in years is signed, sealed, and delivered. But… not so fast, says California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“Paramount/Warner Bros. is not a done deal,” Bonta wrote on X after the news broke. “These two Hollywood titans have not cleared regulatory scrutiny—the California Department of Justice has an open investigation, and we intend to be vigorous in our review.”
As Deadline reminds us, Bonta’s office opened an inquiry into the Warner Bros. acquisition—regardless of which suitor, Netflix or Paramount, ended up victorious—just last week. On February 20, the AG explained, “The film and entertainment industry not only has historical importance to our state, it also is a critical sector that buoys the state’s economy of California and touches the lives of Americans daily. The proposed Warner Brothers transactions must receive a full and robust review, and California is taking a very close look.”
While ownership of Warner Bros. is technically a business deal, political fervor has also built up around the issue, seemingly an unavoidable circumstance in America today. And that’s not going to change no matter what happens next. As CNN—a Warner Bros.-owned outlet that will find itself under the same ownership as the recently overhauled CBS, if Paramount finalizes its purchase—writes, “[President Donald] Trump was and remains a major X factor in the transaction. Although presidents typically stay out of antitrust investigations, Trump strongly suggested that he favored a Paramount deal because of Ellison’s politics.”
So far, neither Trump nor California Governor Gavin Newsom, a noted Trump opponent, has spoken out on this latest development in the Warner Bros. sale. Whatever happens, it sounds like Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav isn’t too worked up about the outcome.
According to Business Insider, he did admit to WBD staffers that the speed of the turnaround was a surprise even to him. But Zaslav emphasized they’d be OK even if the regulatory approval, estimated to take six to 12 months, doesn’t come through, because of the large “breakup fee” Paramount must pay if that happens.
“The deal may not close,” Business Insider quoted Zaslav as saying. “If it doesn’t close, we get $7 billion, and we get back to work.”
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