Twelve Democratic state attorneys general filed suit in federal court in San Francisco on Monday 13 July, seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) and a preliminary injunction to stop Paramount Skydance's $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) from closing. California attorney general Rob Bonta, who leads the coalition, said the merger would mean 'higher prices, lower quality, and less content'.1 The other eleven states are Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington.
Paramount Skydance is the Larry Ellison and David Ellison controlled group formed from the Skydance takeover of the old Paramount; WBD holds HBO, Max, CNN and the Warner Bros. studio. The two make up the largest entertainment tie-up in flight this year. Every federal and European lever that could have blocked it had already cleared or gone quiet: the Department of Justice signed off in June, leaving the states as the one live obstacle.
The theories the coalition is pressing, on theatrical film distribution and basic-cable channel licensing, are grounds neither the DOJ nor the European Commission examined. Paramount rejects them, calling the suit 'a fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws'.2 State antitrust suits survive federal clearance because states enforce their own competition statutes, so the DOJ's sign-off gives Paramount no shield here.
The states asked for a restraining order because the merger can close the moment Brussels rules on 22 July. A TRO granted in the Northern District of California would hold the deal shut past that date, the day the remaining EU competition track resolves. The suit does not need to win outright to bite; it needs only to slow the close while the other clocks run down.
